












^•y' "°^'^-^*/ V'^V V^% 




•_c«55J^w^* ^ 







.^^\ 











.0^ ^o, *^"rr.» A 











<0 o"* "• ^ 
















r* > 



4 q. 



% K.-^' ^^ "'•"<^liy.> _ ^ ^^. -.^m^^:^'*'.*' .V ^^ 



lOv% 







40, 



<ri^ * 

















ELPIS ISRAEL. 

AN EXPOSITION 



OF THE 



KINGDOM OF GOD, 



WITH REFERENCE TO 



THE TIME OF THE END, 

AMD 

THE AGE TO GOME, 
BY JOHN THOIVIAS, ]VI.]_) 

M 

^' For the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain." — Paul. 



EIGHTH EDITION-REVISED. 



TO WHICH IS ADDED 



CHRONIKON HEBEAIKON 

A Treatise on the Chronology of the Scripticres. 
By THE SAMS Author. 



BIRMINGHAM : 

Published by C. C Walker, 21, Hendon Road, Sparkhill. 

1903. 






BIRMINGHAM : 

Printed by Frank Juckes, 100, Aston Street, Corporation Street. 









> 



CONTENTS. 



J.^ PHRT FIRST. 

^ THE RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE NECESSITY OF A REVELATION. 

The necessity of a Revelation to make known the origin, reason, and tendency of 
things in relation to man and the world around him. It is an intelligible 
mystery, and the only source of true wisdom ; but which is practically 
repudiated by the Modems — The study of the Bible urged, to facilitate and 
promote which is the object of this volume ... ... ... 1 

CHAPTER n. 

THE CREATION OF THE EARTH AND MAN. 

The earth before the creation of Adam the habitation of the angels who 
kept not their first estate — A geological error corrected — The Sabbath day 
and the Lord's day — The formation of man and woman — The " great mystery "^ 
of her formation out of man explained — Eden — The Garden of Eden — The 
original and futxire paradises considered — Man's primitive dominion confined 
to the inferior creatures and his own immediate family — Of the two trees of the 
garden — And man in his original estate ... ... ... 9 

CHAPTER in. 

GOD'S LAW, AND HOW SIN ENTERED INTO THE WORLD. 

Probation before exaltation, the law of the moral universe of God — The 
temptation of the Lord Jesus by Satan, the trial of his faith by the 
Father — The Temptation explained — God's foreknowledge does not necessitate ; 
nor does He justify, or condemn, by anticipation — The Serpent an intellectual 
animal, but not a moral agent, nor inspired — He deceives the woman — The 
nature of the transgression — Eve becomes the tempter to Adam — The trans- 
gression consummated in the conception of Cain — A good conscience, and an 
evil conscience, defined — Man cannot cover his own sin — The carnal mind 
illustrated by the reasoning of the Serpent — It is metaphorically the Serpent 
in the flesh —God's truth the only rule of right and wrong — The Serpent in the 
flesh is manifested in the wickedness of individuals ; and in the spiritual and 
temporal institutions of the world — Serpent-sin in the flesh identified with "the 



CONTENTS. , \ 

Wicked One" — The Prince of the World — The Kingdom of Satan and the 
World identical — The Wiles of the Devil — The " Prince " shown to be sin, 
working and reigning in all sinners — How he was " cast out " by Jesus — " The 
works of the Devil" — "Bound of Satan;" delivering to Satan— The Great 
Dragon— The Devil and Satan —The Man of Sin ... ... ... 67 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE SENTENCE OF DEATH— THE RUIN OF THE OLD WORLD, AND 
THE PRESERVATION OF A REMNANT. 

The trial of the Transgressors — Of the Literal and the Allegorical — The 
sentence upon the Serpent particularised — The " Peace and Safety " ciy 
— Jesus came not to send peace, but a sword — The Peace Society the enemy 
of God — Cain, Abel, and Seth— Atheism defined — Cain rejected as the 
progenitor of the Woman's Seed, and Seth appointed — The Antediluvian 
apostasy — The Cainites and Sethites distinct societies — Their union the ruin 
of the old world, of which eight sons of Seth only survive— The Foundation 
of the World — The sentence upon Woman — Her social position defined — 
The sentence upon Adam — The constitution of sin — Of sin as a physical 
quality of the flesh— Of the hereditary nature of Jesus — Of "original sin" 
— Men, sinners in a two-fold sense — The Constitution of Righteousness — Men 
become saints by adoption — The Three Witnesses — The " new birth " explained 
— The Two Principles — Of " the light within " — The scripture revelation the 
divine principle of illumination — The awful condition of "the church" — Of the 
Hidden Man of the heart ... ... ... ... ... 96 



CHAPTER V. 

IMMORTALITY— RELIGION- CLERGY AND LAITY. 

Immortality in the present state a positive evil — Immortality in misery unscriptural 
— The professing world religious from fear — The world's religions useful as 
a system of Ecclesiastical Police — The Religion of Christ destitute of aU worldly 
goods till his return, when it will possess all things — The doctrine of immor- 
tality a divine revelation — The Heathens baffled in their endeavours to discover 
it — The Mosaic Cherubim God's tlirone in Israel — The Cherubim of Ezekiel 
and John — The Cherubic Veil — The Faces of the Lord — The Flaming Sword — 
Illustrated by Ezekiel's description of the glory of the God of Israel — The 
brightness of the Spiritual Body— The Way of the Tree of Life — The etymology 
of the word religion — False religion based upon the idea of appeasing the 
wrath of God — God already reconciled to the world — The " Word of Reconcilia- 
tion " committed to the apostles in the beginning — The apostles the only 
ambassadors of Christ — " The word " preached by the apostles intrusted to the 
disciples of Christ — "Clergy" and "Laity" distinctions of the apostasy — 
Religion defined — Its grand desideratum —No true religion without belief of 
the truth — The word " faith " scripturally defined — How faith comes — The 
" religious world " infidel 'of " the faith " — " Love " scripturaUy defined by 
"obedience" — The religious world destitute of the Spirit of God — Religion 
contemporary only with sin — Summary of principles ... ... 129 



CONTENTS. V. 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE PRESENT WORLD IN ITS RELATION TO THE WORLD TO COME. 

God the builder of aU things — Nothing accidental, but all things the result 
of divine premeditation— Whatever exists He created for BKs own pleasure 
and glory — The purpose of God in the work of creation and providence, 
revealed in the scriptures — The present order of things merely provisional — 
The economy of the fulness of appointed times the true " Intermediate State " 
of a thousand years' duration — The tower of Babel builders, peacemen, and 
socialists — The principle upon which men attain to the angelic nature, and 
dignity, defined— God's two-fold purpose in the foundation of the world 
stated — ^The means by which it is accomplishing — Dissertation on the 
Elohim ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 152 



PHRT SEeONO. 

THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD, 
AND THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM IN RELATION TO ISRAEL AND 
TO THE GENTILES. 

The truth indicated — None but the believers of the tnith can inherit the 
Kingdom of God — Abraham, " the Heir of the World " — To inherit with 
him, men must believe what he believed ; and become his children by adoption 
tlu-ough Jesus Christ — The gospel and the things of the Kingdom one and the 
same— It was preached to Abraham, Israel, and the Gentiles, by the Lord 
(rod, by Moses, by Jesiis, and by the Apostles — Gospel things susceptible of a 
threefold classification-— The Keys of the Kingdom — Inti-usted only to Peter — 
The Mystery of the Kingdom — The Fellowship of the Mystery — "Apostolic 
Succession " — Qualifications of an ajDostle of Christ — Import of the phrase 
"the end of the world" — "The sign" of its approach — The gospel preached 
to every creature by the Apostles — Modern missionaryism inadequate to the end 
proposed ... ... .. ... ... ... ... 171 

CHAPTER n. 

THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO ABRAHAM. HIS FAITH AND WORKS. 

Five points of j)rophetic testimony — The general elements of a kingdom 
constituents of the kingdom of Christ — The promise made of God to the 
fathers, the hope of Israel, and the gospel, the same — Who the fathers are — 
Abram originally from Babel, and an idolater — The Lord preaches the gospel 



VI. CONTENTS. 

to him in Mesopotamia — ^He believes it, and emigrates westward in conse- 
quence — ^Becomes a wanderer in the land of Canaan, which is promised to 
him and Christ for ever — ^His faith counted to him for righteousness — ^The 
promise of a resurrection to eternal life — Confirmation of the covenant of 
promise— The extent of the land defined in the Covenant — The personal 
reappearance of Christ necessitated by the nature of things — The phrases *' in 
thee," " in him," and " in thy seed," explained — The nations God's people in 
no sense — Abraham, Christ, and the saints, "heirs of the world" — The token of 
the covenant — The signification of circumcision — Modern Israel under the 
curse of the law — Circumcision of the heart —The Allegory — The two seeds — 
Parable of the Seed — Sxmamary of Abraham's faith ... ... 199 



CHAPTER III. 

THE aOSPEL PREACHED TO ISAAC AND JACOB. THE SCRIPTURE 
DOCTRINE OF ELECTION. 

The gospel preached to Isaac — The election of Jacob — The scripture doctrine 
of election — Not according to popular tradition — How men are elected, 
and how they may know it — Esau hated — Vision of Jacob's Ladder — Jacob's 
care for his body after death — Joseph's anxiety about his bones — Jacob's 
prophecy of the Last Days — Sununary of " the faith " at Joseph's death — Things 
established — Chronology of the Age before the Law ... ... 238 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE GOSPEL IN RELATION TO THE MOSAIC ECONOMY. 

State of Egypt and Israel before the exodus — The time of the promises 
arrives — Call of Moses — God's everlasting memorial — Moses is sent to Israel 
— He is accepted as a ruler and deliverer — He declares glad tidings to them ; 
but they refuse to listen — The Exodus — Israel baptized into Moses — The song 
of victory — They are fed with angel's food — The Lord's passover — How to 
be fulfilled in the kingdom of God — The Lord's supper — The Twelve Tribes 
constituted the kingdom of God — The gospel preached to Israel — They reject 
it — ^Of the Rest — The Royal House of the kingdom — "The sure mercies of 
David" — The kingdom and throne of David — David's kingdom also God's king- 
dom under its first constitution ... ... ... ... 260 

CHAPTER V. 

THINGS CONCERNING THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST. 

Israel unable to redeem themselves ; and the nations equally powerless to 
their own regeneration — The reconstruction of the social fabric the work 
of Omnipotence by the hand of the Lord Jesus at his approaching manifesta- 
tion — He wiU re-establish the kingdom and throne of David — The priesthood 
of Shiloh — The Ezekiel temple to be built by Christ — Of the Name of 
Jesus — Of repentance, remission of sins, and eternal life — Death-bed, and gaol, 
repentance ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 280 



CONTENTS. Vll. 



PHRT THIRD. 

THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD IN 

THEIR RELATION TO THE KINGDOM 

OF GOD. 

CHAPTER I. 

NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S IMAGE— THE HAND OF GOD IN HUMAN 

HISTORY. 

The pandemoniauism of the world — The Press, its organs to a great extent 
— Its conductors greatly deficient in political prevision — A divine agency 
the real source of the world's revolutions — God hath revealed what 
shall come to pass — ^Nebuchadnezzar's Image explained — It represents an 
Autocracy to be manifested in these latter days — The Toe-kingdoms 
enumerated — The Vision of the Four Beasts — Of the Saints and the two 
Witnesses ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 292 

CHAPTER XL 

ROMAN BABYLON AND THE RESURRECTION OF THE WITNESSES. 

The Sin-power iu its war against the seed of the woman in the west, 
symbolized by the Beasts and their Image — God will surely avenge His saints 
— The crimes for which the nations are to be judged, stated — The geography 
of the " Lake of Fire " Avhere the judgment sits — The saints the executioners 
of the Little Horn — They are raised from political death for this purpose — 
Events connected with their resurrection — The three days and a half of their 
unburied state, explained — Their ascension — End of 1,260 years — Of the time 
of the Beast ... ... ... ... ... ... 319 

CHAPTER III. 

THE " VIALS OF THE WRATH OF GOD "—ARMAGEDDON. 

Doings of the Witnesses when invested with power — They execute justice on their 
enemies — A great earthquake — The seventh triunpet — ^Divided into seven 
vial-periods — The third, fourth, and fifth vials, and Napoleon — England and 
the second vial — -Turkey and the sixth vial — All Europe and the seventh vial — 
The prophecy of the Frogs explained — The mission of the unclean spirits — 
Their operation the sign of Christ's stealthy and sudden return — The great 
desideratum in view of the Advent ... ... ... ... 330 



VI 11. CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE EASTERN QUESTION BEFORE CHRIST. 

The vision and prophecy of the East — Of the Ram and the Unicorn — The 
Four Horns of the Goat — Of the fifth, or Little, Horn — Of the Seventy- 
Weeks — Of the 1,290 years — Summary of the eleventh of Daniel — Paraphrase 
of the first thirty-five verses of Dan. xi. — Of the king and the strange god — 
Mahuzz'im-Bazaars ... ... ... ... ... ... 355 

CHAPTER V. 

THE EASTERN QUESTION IN " THE TIME OF THE END." 

It is impossible that the Holy Land can be for ever subject to the Gentiles- 
— It is to be wrested from them in the crisis of " the time of the end " — Of 
Daniel's 2,400 days— Of the beginning of " the time of the end " — Of the king 
of the south at that time — 'The Autocrat of Russia the king of the north in " th& 
time of the end " — England and the Jews — Of Gognie and Magogue — Ezekiel's 
and John's two different and remote confederacies — Daniel's king of the north 
of " the time of the end," and Gogue of " the latter days," the same — The 
Gogue of Ezekiel proved to be Emperor of Germany and Autocrat of all 
the Russias — Gomer and the French — Sheba, Dedan, the Merchants of Tarshish 
and its young lions, identified as the British power ... ... 376 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE RESURRECTION OF ISRAEL— THE SECOND EXODUS--THE 
MILLENNIUM—" THE END." 

The restoration of Israel indispensable to the setting up of the kingdom 
of God — Israel to be grafted into their own olive on a principle of faith — Not 
by Gentile agency, but by Jesus Christ, will God graft them in again — Britain, 
the protector of the Jews, as indicated by Isaiah xviii. — The British power in 
the south, the Moab, &c., of " the latter days " — The second exodus of Israel — 
The nations of the Image to be subdued by Israel to the dominion of their king 
— -The New Covenant delivered to Judah, and the kingdom of God set up in 
Judea — The returning of the Ten Tribes to Canaan will occupy forty years — 
Elijah's Mission — Israel re-assembled in Egypt— They cross the Nile, and pass 
through the Red Sea, on foot — They march into Canaan, receive the New 
Covenant, and, re-united to Judah, form one nation and kingdom under Christ 
for 1,000 years — -The blessedness of the nations, and their loyalty to Israel's 
king — Of the end of the thousand years ... ... ... 399 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



JOHN THOMAS was bom in Hoxton Square, London, on April 12tli, 1805. 
Information concerning his ancestry is meagre, and interest centres more in 
his work than his extraction. He studied medicine at an early age in Chorley and 
London, and contributed to The Lancet occasionally as far back as 1830. His 
English degree, of this year's date, is M.R.C.S., his M.D. being an American degree 
of date 1848. Some insinuations of unfriendly critics have been met by the brief 
statement of facts that appears in The Christadelphian for April, 1886, page 152. 

In 1832 Dr. Thomas emigrated to America, making the passage as surgeon to 
the ship Marquis of Wellesley. The vessel ran ashore on Sable Island, and it was 
supposed she would be lost with all hands. Dr. Thomas was naturally exercised as 
to the future state, and finding himself in a state of hopeless ignorance on the 
matter, resolved, if his life should be spared, that he would end the uncertainty and 
search out the truth upon the matter. 

On getting safe ashore he did not forget this resolution ; and in the coarse of 
his travels, having been introduced to Mr. "Walter Scott of " Campbellite " associa- 
tions, and by him convinced of the necessity of baptism, he submitted to inunersion 
as an ordinance appointed of God. From this time onward he became involved 
with Campbellism and theological expositions and discussions which were altogether 
distasteful to him, and from which he would fain have escaped. But it was not to 
be. At Wellsburg, Va., in 1833 he made the acquaintance of Alexander Campbell, 
and was by him constrained to speak in his meeting place ; Avhich he did, on 
Daniel's prophecies, and on the subject of The Apostacy spoken of by Paul. 

From this time forth wherever he went he was in demand in this connection. 
At Baltimore, Md., and at Philadelphia, Pa., he was likewise constrained to set 
forth what he then believed to be the truth. At Philadelphia he set up as a medical 
practitioner ; but his practice was somewhat hampered by the Biblical studies and 
speaking in which he had become involved. 

In 1834 Dr. Thomas started a monthly magazine called The Aioostol'ie Advocate^ 
in the pages of which he manifested an understanding of the Scriptures, and 
especially of the Apocalypse, that was rare in those times (and, indeed, in any), and 
gave promise of the fiaiit of after years, of which El'p'is Israel is not the worst 
sample. 

About this time, by the growing influence of " the Word," Dr. Thomas was 
rapidly becoming "wiser than his teachers," and trouble ensued. He perceived that 
the knowledge and belief of the gospel must in God's appointments precede 
baptism, and was thereupon re-immersed upon the belief of what he then supposed 
to be the gospel, and which was certainly much nearer to it than the very 
rudimentary belief with which he had been immersed a few years previously- 



X. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 

Upon tliis there naturally arose a cry against what Alexander Cami^hell and his 
followers called " Anabaptism." Mr. Campbell controverted Dr. Thomas in The 
Millennial Harbinger, and he replied vigorously in the A'postolie Advocate, in which, 
in December, 1835, he published an article in all good faith under the heading 
" Information Wanted," putting forward a series of 34 questions intended to elucidate 
the Scriptural doctrines of eternal life, the Kingdom of God, and related topics. 

This was treated by Campbellism as heretical speculation, and a rupture followed, 
which was never healed. 

In 1837 Dr. Thomas debated for five days with a Presbyterian clergyman named 
Watt. The report of this debate, under the title of The Apostacy Unveiled, is still 
current, and illustrates the progress made in the understanding of the Scriptures up 
to that time. 

In 1839, becoming tired of theological strife. Dr. Thomas migrated westward 
into the state of Illinois, and settled at Longrove upon some 300 acres of land and 
took to farming, with experiences of an arduous and sometimes amusing character. 
1841 found him editing a weekly newspaper at St. Charles, and in 1842 a monthly 
magazine called The Investigator. 

About this time a taste of Job's experience befell him, for, having removed to 
Louisville, Va., and determined to sell the farm in Illinois, he intrusted the sale to an 
agent who absconded with the proceeds, leaving Dr. Thomas not only minus the 
price but saddled with debt as well. 

In 1844 he started a monthly magazine called The Herald of the Future Age, and 
settled at Richmond, Va., and soon after finally broke with Campbellism, the 
oppositions of which had done so much to force his attention to the accurate and 
thorough study of the Scriptures. 

In 1847 he had elaborated from the Scriptures the doctrines that find such 
lucid and ample exhibition in Elpis Israel ; and, perceiving that he had after all 
only just arrived at " the truth of the gospel," he published, in March, 1847, " A 
Confession and Abjuration " of past erroneous belief and contentions, and was 
i-e-immersed for " the hope of Israel," which Paul preached to the Jews at Rome. 
About this time also he paid a visit to New York, where afterwards he was to settle. 
Also about this time he proposed to Alexander Campbell a full and exhaustive 
written discussion upon the immortality of the soul and related topics. The 
proposal, however, met with so contemptuous a refusal that several of Mr. Campbell's 
friends were alienated by his manner. 

An interesting episode occurred also about this time, namely, the phrenological 
examination of both Alexander CampbeU and John Thomas by Mr. L. N. Fowler, of 
New York. It was a- quite independent examination and interestingly illustrated 
the natural tendencies of the disputants, and is strikingly borne out by the portraits 
of each. 

In 1848 Dr. Thomas visited Britain. He was deeply stirred by the revolution- 
aiy upheavals of the time, and before his departure wrote on the subject to the Nea: 
York Star, which, in publishing his letter, spoke of him as " A Missionary for 
Europe," which indeed he was, but of an unusual type. Arriving at Liverpool in 
June, 1848, he made his way South ; and by a series of providences a door of utter- 
ance was opened for him by the interactions of Campbellite rivalries. He travelled 
^-tlirough Nottingham, Derby, Birmingham, Plymouth, Lincoln, Newark and other 
places, speaking upon the gospel of the Kingdom of God as occasion offered. After- 



BIOGRAPHICAL Is^OTES. XI. 

wards he made his way to Glasgow, and lectured there and at Paisley, attracting 
much attention by his expositions of the prophetic word in its bearings upon the 
signs of the times. 

Ely'is Israel itself came out of this visit, as is explained by Dr. Thomas himself 
in the subjoined Preface. 

Eeturning to London, he occupied some months in writing El'pls Israel, and 
during the time attended a Peace meeting in the British Institution, Cowper Street, 
at which he moved an amendment to the effect that war was a divine institution in 
this age of sin and death, and that the coming years were by the prophetic word 
defined to be " a time of war " and not " a time of peace." The amendment was 
derisively rejected ; but 50 years of war have attested the soundness of Dr. Thomas' 
views. 

Having comjDleted El'pls Israel, Dr. Thomas made a second journey through 
England and. Scotland, among other things contributing a pamphlet to " the Gorham 
controversy," under the title Clerical Theology Unscri-ptural, which is still current ; 
and, in a breezy dialogue between " Boanerges " and " Heresian," exhibits the Bible 
truth concerning " original sin," " remission of sins," etc., as graphically set forth 
in other style in Elpis Israel. 

After over two years' absence from America, Dr. Thomas returned, and resumed 
the publication of The Herald of the Kingdom, which he continued for eleven years, 
until the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1860-61 brought about its 
suspension. 

In 1862 Dr. Thomas revisited Britain and found that, notwithstanding the fact 
that El-pls Israel had in many cases been burnt in disgust upon its receipt by 
subscribers, some small communities of believers of the gosjpel had arisen. For the 
edification of these he travelled and lectured through the country once more? 
returning to America shortly afterwards. 

His next and greatest and last work was Eureka, an exposition of the Apocalypse, 
in three volumes (over 2,000 pages), published by subscription, of which the first 
voltmae was published in 1862, and the third in 1868. It is a work which none of 
" the servants of God " should fail to possess. 

In 1864, as The Herald of the Kingdom had been suspended, and Dr. Thomas 
was engaged upon Eureka, at his suggestion The Ambassador of the Coming Age 
was started under the editorship of the late Robert Roberts, of Birmingham, , 
England, who continued it (as The Christadelphian) to the day of his death in 
September, 1898. 

The progress of the American Civil War bore hardly upon the brethren of 
Christ, who were fotmd in both the opposing camps, and who abhorred the taking of 
the sword as a thing forbidden by their Lord and Master, whose dictum is " All 
they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." In their extremity they 
desired Dr. Thomas to formulate some appeal to the authorities for exemption from 
military service on account of their conscientious objections, and subject to such 
conditions as might be thought fit to be imposed. To save his friends from being- 
called Thomasites it was necessary to adopt some distinctive name. The name 
Christian, as Dr. Thomas pointed out, had been appropriated by every Anti-Christian 
thing under the sim, and was no longer distinctive as it was in the first century. So 
Dr. Thomas hit upon the name Christadelphian, which, after about forty years' 
" earnest contention for the faith," has conquered for itself a recognition in the 



XU. BIOGRAPHICAL KOTES. 

allotment of about three inclies of space in the new volumes of the Encyclopcedia 
Britanniea after this manner : — 

" Christadelphians (xpiorrov ahX(f)ot), a community founded by John Thomas 
(1848), who studied medicine in London and then migrated to America. There he 
at first joined the ' Campbellites,' but afterwards struck out independently, preach- 
ing largely on the application of Hebrew jjrophecy and of the language of the 
Apocalypse to current and future political events. In America and in Great Britain 
he gathered a number of adherents, and formed a community which is said to have 
extended to most English speaking countries. It consists of exclusive ' Ecclesias * 
with neither ministry nor organization. The members meet on Sundays to ' break 
bread ' and discuss the Bible. Their theology is strongly Millenarian, centring 
in the hope of a world-wide theocracy, with its seat at Jerusalem. They believe 
that they alone have the true exegesis of Scripture, and that the ' faith of Christen- 
dom* is 'compounded of the fables predicted by Paul.' No statistics are 
published." 

In 1869, after the completion of Bureka, Dr. Thomas visited Britain for the 
last time. He found that the truth had taken root through his labours, and decided 
to transfer his residence to England for the rest of his days. But it was not to be. 
Upon his advice the name of The Ambassador was changed to The Christadelphian , 
which it still bears. After travelling and lecturing among the people created by 
" the tnith " illustrated by his Avritings, Dr. Thomas returned to New York, but was 
soon afterwards attacked by illness, and died on March 5th, 1871. He is buried 
in Greenwood Cemeteiy, Brooklyn, where, by a remarkable coincidence the late 
Robert Roberts, who for many years continued his work, was laid beside him in 
September, 1898. 

Of the correctness of Dr. Thomas' political anticipations from the prophets, the 
following is offered as proof, in addition to what may be found in the text and foot- 
notes of this edition of Elpis Israel. The subjoined extract is from Dr. Thomas : 
Ris Life and Work, a biography by the late Robert Roberts, with copious extracts 
from Dr. Thomas' letters and articles. 

Dr. Thomas' political prognostications, based on prophecy, have been too signally 
realised to admit of the supposition that he was radically mistaken in his chronological 
scheme. He predicted the failure of the Hungarian revolt (Herald of the Kingdom, vol. 
i. p. 98) ; the uprise of Napoleon III., without mentioning his name (Herald of the 
Future Age, a^oI. iv,, p. 48) ; the political and war developing ascendancy of France 
under him for a series of years (Herald of the Kingdom, vol. ii., p. 37 ; vol iii., p. 
16) ; his interference in the affairs of Italy (Herald of the Future Age, vol. iii., p. 
262) ; his expulsion of the Austrians from that country (vol. v., p. 205) ; the war 
between Austria and Italy, resulting in Austria losing her hold on Italy (vol. iii., p. 
262) ; the dismemberment of the Austrian Empire by France (ibid. p. 263) ; the 
downfall of the French Empire (Herald of the Kingdom, vol. iii., p. 17) ; the co- 
existence of the Pope and King of Italy in Rome (Herald of the Future Age. vol, iii.> 
p. 288) and a number of other things, such as the efforts of Egypt for independence, 
the attempt of Russia on Turkey in 1854, &c.; &c." — Dr. Thomas : His Life and 
Wo7h, page 316. 



AUTHOR'S PEEFACE. 

(Condensed from the four Prefaces appearing in the Fourth Edition, and 
covering a period of eighteen years, 1848-1866.) 



The year 1848 has been well and truly styled the " Annus MiralDilis," or Wonderfu] 
Year. So, indeed, it proved itself to Europe ; for though this division of the globe 
was overspread with numerous large, well-appointed, and highly-disciplined armies, 
maintained to uphold what remained of the work of the Congress of Vienna, in 
1815, and to prevent the rising of the people against their destroyers, yet did the 
wild and ill-armed Democracy of Europe break their bonds asunder as a rotten 
thread, and shake its kingdoms to their foundations. 

Great excitement was produced in the United States by the news of what was 
going on in Europe. Many who had for years before been predicting " the end of 
all things," were now persuaded it had come at last. Others came to a different 
conclusion, and rejoiced in the supposition that the kingdoms of the world were 
about to become republics, after the model of the United States. Both these 
imaginations, however, serve to show how little the " sure word of prophecy " was 
understood or heeded by the people. The author endeavoured, as far as he could 
obtain the ear of the public, to disabuse it of these vain conceits. He opposed to 
them " the testimony of God," which testifies the continuance of "the times of the 
Gentiles " until Nebuchadnezzar's Image be broken to pieces upon the Mountains of 
Israel ; and the perjDetuity of the kingdoms until after this event, when Christ shall 
encounter their kings in battle, and annex their realms to his kingdom by conquest ; 
for, by his kingdom, and not by popular violence, will he break in pieces and 
consume them all. But the author was as one that spoke parables in the ears of 
the deaf. Time, however, has verified his interpretation in part. Though terribly 
shaken, the kingdoms still exist, and republics are at a discount ; and the " Order," 
in which God's enemies rejoice, has been provisionally re-established. 

The events in 1848 caused many in the United States to revisit their native 
lands. Among these was the author of this volume. Believing he could irradiate 
the light of the prophetic word upon the political tragedies of the time, and, by so 
doing, be of use to those who desire to know the truth, he determined to intermit his 
labours in America, where he had been operating for about sixteen years in the 
same vocation, and to see if " a door of utterance " might not be opened in England 
for the same purpose. He was the more induced to take this step by a desire to be 
nearer the scene of action, that he might avail himself of the more frequent and 
copious details furnished by the British than the American press, to the end that 
he might as speedily as possible obtain a comprehensive view of the crisis ; which 
is the most important that has yet happened to the world, because it is pregnant 
of consequences for good and evil, which will leave their mark upon society for a 
thousand years. 

Having made his arrangements accordingly, he arrived in London, June 28th, 
1848 ; and in July following he received an invitation to visit Nottingham, and to 
deliver a course of lectures upon the times, in connection with the prophetic word. 
The interest created during his short stay there was great and encouraging, and 
became the occasion of invitations to visit other towns and cities also. During this 
tour he visited Derby, Belper, Lincoln, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Paisley, and 
addressed thousands of the people, who heard him gladly. Those who opened 
the way for him were neither the rich nor the noble, but intelligent men of 
industrious and steady habits, who desired to know and disseminate the truth 
according to their means. As the author's labours were gratuitous, they were the 
better able to afford him facilities ; and he would add here the testimony of his 
experience, that not only is the gospel, when preached, " preached to the poor," and 
received by them, but it is the poor also who devote themselves to its proclamation, 



XIV. AUTHORS PREFACE. 

and who do most for its support. If it had not been for the poor and humble 
during the last 1,849 years, the gospel would have perished from the earth ; for the 
rich have not been the persons to leave the comforts of their homes, and to go 
forth, wihout fee or reward, to enlighten their fellow men, for the truth's sake. 

It is a gratification to the author to be able to say, that he has left his home, 
4,000' miles in the south-west ; that he has travelled twice through Britain ; delivered 
170 addresses to the people ; sat up early and late conversing with them on the things 
of the kingdom, and written this work, that he may leave a testimony behind him, 
and as yet has received no more than four shillings over his travelling expenses. 
He mentions this, that the reader may be able to acquit him of being a trader in 
religion ; and that what he says in this book concerning " spiritual merchants " may 
not lose its point, under the supposition that he also is one of the wealthy and 
thriving firm. Rich men have not yet learned to " make themselves friends of the 
mammon of unrighteousness ; that when they fail, they may receive them into ever- 
lasting habitations." All the opposition the author has had to contend against since 
his arrival in Britain has proceeded from them : but he is gratified in being able to 
state, that they have failed to obstruct him, and their waywardness has recoiled on 
their own pates. 

The interest created in the thousands who listened to the author's discourses 
has originated the work now offered to the world. A request Avas piiblicly made to 
him in Edinburgh and Glasgow, that what had been spoken should be printed ; and 
that, as it was not to be expected that he should publish at a mere venture, committees 
woald be formed to promote a subscription. Although the author had concluded to 
return to America in October or November, he could not find it in his heart to 
leave his work unfinished, seeing that such a volume was now desired. Trasting, 
therefore, to the good faith of those who had become interested in the truth, he 
acceded to their request, and on his return to London entered upon the labour, 
which has proved sufficiently laborio^is by the close application required to do much 
in a limited time. 

Having at length finished the maimscript, the author made a second tour in 
June, 1849. In addition to the former places, he visited Birmingham, Newark, 
Dundee, Aberdeen, and Liverpool. The result of his labours was a list of upwards 
of a thousand subscribers, which encouraged him to go to press on his return to 
London in September. But, on revising the manuscript, he foimd some things 
omitted, others touched too lightly, and other parts too diffuse ; so that, upon the 
whole, he condemned it as unsuitable, and imposed upon himself the task of writing- 
it over again — which, after four months, he has accomplished, and now offers it to 
the public for its "edification, exhortation, and comfort." 

The nature of the work is indicated on the title-page. It is a work showing 
what the Bible teaches as a whole, and not the elaboration of a new or fantastical 
theological theory, or the new vamping of an old one. It demonstrates the great 
subject of the Scriptures, namely : " the Kingdom of God and of His Anointed," 
without which they would be as a nut whose kernel had perished. It is a book for 
all classes, lay and clerical, without respect of persons, for all are concluded under 
sin, being all ignorant of " this gospel of the kingdom." Judging from the lucubra- 
tions of public writers of the ministerial class, the nature of the times demands 
something out of the ordinary periodical and public routine to awake " the 
churches " to spiritual life, lest they sleep the sleep of death. They are truly in a 
Laodicean state, and already spued out of the mouth of the Lord. They say they 
are " rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing ; " but some of their 
doctors have discernment enough to see that they are "wretched, and miserable, and 
poor, and blind, and naked." But, alas for them, they know not how to remedy the evil ! 
They do not perceive that the fault is in their systems, which have made them what 
they are, and which they are pledged to support on pain of " suffering the loss of 
all things." 

The great desideratum of the crisis is the Gospel of the Kingdom. The State- 
clergy and the Dissen ting-ministry are ignorant of the Gospel ; and " like priest like 
people." " The churches " are full of darkness, for the Gospel doth not shine into 
them, being neither believed nor preached among them. Here, then, is a book 



AUTHORS PREFACE. .XV. 

peculiarly adaj)ted to the times. It will show the people what the gospel is — what 
is the obedience it requires — and enable them to discern the times ; that the Lord 
may not come upon them at unawares, and take them unprepared. It is a book, not 
for these times only but for all the years preceding " the time of the end," and 
thence to the epoch of the restoration of the kingdom and throne of David. It is 
named ELPIS ISRAEL, or Israel's Hope : for the kingdom of which it treats is 
that which is longed for by all intelligent Israelites, and for which, said Paul, " I am 
bound with this chain." 

Elpis Israel's subject-matter is national, not sectarian. It treats of a nation, 
and of its civil and ecclesiastical institutions in a past and future age. It is designed 
to enlighten both Jews and Gentiles in Israel's Hope, that by conforming to the 
proclamation of their king, they may be prepared for the administration of its 
afi'airs in concert with him, when all nations shall be as politically subject to his 
dominion, as Hindostan and Britain are to Queen Victoria's. It is designed to show 
men how they may attain to eternal life in this theocracy, and obtain a crown which 
shall never fade away. To accomplish this, the reader must, in justice to himself 
ar.d the truth, study it with the Bible at his right hand, for he will find but few pages 
in which frequent reference is not made to its authority, and without which nothing 
can or ought to be determined. 

A copy of this work has been ordered for presentation to the Autocrat of all the 
Russias. He will find in it much concerning his dominions. The high priest of the 
Jews showed Alexander the Gi-eat the iDroj)hecy in Daniel concerning himself ; and 
although it spoke of his power being broken, the knowledge of it did not deter him 
from endeavouring to found a universal dominion. So it wall be with the Autocrat. 
He will, doubtless, receive all that speaks of the extension of his emj^ire over Europe 
and Turkey, because his ambition will be flattered by it ; but being impressed with 
the idea of his being God's Vicegerent upon earth, he will probably disregard what 
relates to the breaking of his power on the Mountains of Israel by the Lord from 
heaven ; arguing as a natural man, that it is not likely God will destroy His 
Grand A^izier among the nations. But whatever the Autocrat ma}'- think of the 
destiny marked out for him, the reader's attention is particularly invited to what is 
said respecting it in this volume. The fiiture movements of Russia are notable 
signs of the times, because they are predicted in the Scriptures of truth. The 
Russian Autocracy in its plenitude, and on the verge of its dissolution, is the Image 
of NebiTchadnezzar standing upon the Mountains of Israel, ready to be smitten 
by the Stone. When Russia makes its grand move for the building-uj) of its 
Image-empire, then let the reader know that the end of all things, as at present 
constituted, is at hand. The long-exjoected, but stealthy advent of the King of Israel, 
will be on the eve of becoming a fact ; and salvation will be to those who not only 
looked for it, but have trimmed their lamps by believing the gospel of the 
kingdom mito the obedience of faith, and the perfection thereof in "fruits meet for 
repentance." 

As to the reviewers, the author presents his compliments to them, and respect- 
fully invites them to examine this work impartially. While he has no Avish to 
propitiate them, it Avould afford him great pleasure to turn them to what he believes 
to be " the truth as it is in Jesus," as opposed to the dogmas of their creeds. It is 
not to be expected that they can approve the work, seeing that, if the things 
exhibited be received. Sectarianism is dethroned, at least in the hearts of those who 
receive the principles inculcated. By Sectarianism the author means everytlihig 
professedly ChrisUan, not according to " the laic and the testimony." He therefore 
uses the word as representative of all state-religions, as well as of the forms opposed 
to them. Being the echo of no living sect, but the advocate only of what is icritten 
in the oracles of God, of the faith and practice of that "sect" which in Paul's time 
"was everywhere spoken against," he has shown no favour to the Heresies (aipefreLi) 
Avhich destroy it, and therefore he expects none. The perils to w^hich he is exposed, 
are only to be despised by those whose houses are founded upon the rock. The 
author is free to admit his weakness and inferiority in every respect that can be 
imagined. In one thing, however, he feels strong, and armed at all points for a. 
conflict with the giants — he knows what is written in " the late and the testimony,** 



XVI. AUTHORS PREFACE. 

and he understands the meaning of it. If they undertake to review this work, they 
must put it through the evolutions of the Spirit ; and if they enter into combat with 
it, he would advise them to throw away their wooden swords, and encounter it with 
" the two-edged sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God : " for no other 
weapon can do more than raise the author's mirth. 

But perhaps prudence, which is sometimes the better part of valour, may 
dictate the expediency of saying nothing about it. This might be very good pol icy 
if Elpis Israel were born from the press only to gasp and die. But editors must 
remember, that before a single copy reaches them, it will be in the hands of upwards 
of a thousand people. This is a fact not to be despised. Such a number of 
intelligent persons is calculated to make a troublesome impression upon the public 
mind ; and if the press do not check it, there is no telling whereunto the evil may 
grow ! Let " the Ministry " be up and doing. It is not the " infidel " their influence 
hath to fear ; but the Word of the Living God understood by the people. The 
author has some of them among his subscribers. He trusts that for their own sakes 
they will read this work with candour, impartiality, and tranquility of mind. As 
individuals, he has no controversy with them. His opposition is to their systems, 
AV'hich he trusts they will abandon for the gospel of the kingdom. If Elpls Israel 
convince them of error, then, like the apostle, may they esteem their Avorldly honoiirs 
and profits as mere dross for the excellency of the truth. Let them leave the fat 
things of the apostacy to those who " mind earthly things ; " and let them put on 
the whole armour of God, and go forth among the people with the two-edged sword 
of the Spirit, and do battle for the truth. 

In conclusion, then, the author respectfully hands over to the subscribers this 
work, as an ample fulfilment of his part of the covenant between them. They can 
now form their own judgment of its merits or defects, according to the evidence a 
candid perusal may afford. And maj^ God Almighty bless their honest endeavours 
to know and understand His truth, which is intrinsically invincible, and needs only 
to come in contact with " good and honest hearts," to become triumphantly defiant 
of all the wiles and " power of the enemy." May the spirit of the truth enter into 
them, and lead them into its liberty and fraternity ; that at the coming of the Son of 
Man in celestial majesty and jDower, they may share with him in his joy, and inherit 
the kingdom of God with eternal glory. 

London, January 1, 1850. 



From the Preface to Second Edition, 

In the preface to the first edition, I stated that " a copy of this work had been 
ordered for presentation to the Autocrat of all the Russias." This was the fact. It 
was ordered by a friend in Dundee, in Scotland, whence a great trade is carried on 
with the Emperor's dominions. Now, what I have to add, is rendered necessary, 
that the reader may not be misled. He will have probably concluded that the 
Autocrat is in possession of Elp'is Israel, and acquainted with its contents. This, 
however, is not the case, as far as I am at present informed. My friend in Dundee 
did his best to get the work transmitted. He applied to several captains of vessels 
trading to St. Petersburg, but they all declined to take it, lest it might bring them 
into trouble there. 

[Then Dr. Thomas tried Baron Brunnow, the Russian Ambassador. He 

retained the hook sixteen days, and then returned it, xcith a polite letter in 

French explaining that " the rules of the service " forbade its transmissi 07i. 

The rest of tJiis preface contains Dr. Tliomas' letters to Baron Brunnow and 

Czar NicJiolas. It is dated Richmond, Va., June, 1851.] 



From the Preface to Third Edition. 

Nearly ten years have elapsed since this work was originally published in London, 
England. A year after, an edition was published in New York, the two editions 
collectively consisting of two thousand three hundred copies. These have been all 
disposed of, so that for the past three years the author has been unable to supply a 



AUTHOR S PREFACE. XVll. 

considerable additional demand for the work. He has been urged by many who have 
read the book to publish a new edition. ... A friend writes : " Apart from all 
other considerations than the real merit of the book, you have nothing to fear as to 
its success. I would recommend you to give at once a public announcement of 
your intention to issue a new edition, and invite orders ; you may find a larger 
edition wanted than you anticipate." Encouraged, therefore, by many similar 
assurances from others, I have published this third edition of El-pis Israel. 

When the work was written, the times were of a highly exciting and stirring- 
character. Nor have they materially changed to the present hour. During the past 
ten years a succession of events has demonstrated, that a fixed and predetermined 
purpose is in process of development, unknown indeed, to " the Powers that be," 
but known of God, revealed in His word, and guided by His hand. That purpose 
is, the gathering together of the hosts of the nations against Jerusalem to irar ; that 
the Eternal Spirit, hy Jesus, the King of kings, may smite them upon the mountains 
of Israel ; and in concert with resurrected and living saints, at the head of the 
armies of Israel, re-estahl'ish the throne and kingdom of David, and subjugate all 
other kingdoms to this Neiu Power hi the earth. If the reader desire to assure him.- 
self of the verity of this purpose, he ma}'^ consult the following testimonies : Isaiah 
xiv. 24-27 ; xxvii. 1-6 ; Joel iii. 1, 2, 9-17 ; Micah v. 1-6 ; Zechariah xii. 1-9 ; xiv. 
1-11; Daniel xi. 40-45; xii. 1, 2; Revelations xix. 11-16; xvii. 14; xi. 15-17; v. 
9, 10; ii. 26, 27; Acts xv. 16 ; Amos ix. 11-15; Isaiah ix. 6, 7; Luke i. 31-33— 
and so forth. The past history of Israel, of Jesus and the Saints, and of the world 
at large, all prove that this purpose has never yet been fulfilled ; so that the reader 
has no alternative but to believe the purpose, or reject the truth of the Bible, and 
write himself an infidel. There is no neutral ground. Every man in " Christen- 
dom" falsely so-called, is on the side of the purpose or against it. Jesus and his 
apostles preached that ^'Salvation is of the Jews'^ — a salvation dependent upon the 
development of the purpose defined. Hence, " when ye see certain things coming to 
pass, then look up, and lift up your heads ; for your redemption draweth nigh " — a 
saying which intimates that the approach of redemption, whatever it may consist 
in, may be known by a current fulfilment of predicted things, shortly preceding its 
manifestation. 

We may remark here, that on page 126, second paragraph, we are supposed to 
say, that "the work of the law was written upon the hearts" of Gentiles who 
had heard nothing of it. This was not our meaning. We there endeavour to 
account for the moral difference between the mere savage and the joeoples of the 
four empires ; that the little light they had came from the law through their inter- 
course with Israel ; it came " from without : " but where there was no intercourse 
with this peculiar people, the darkness was total ; and there was no accusing or 
excusing, no conscience ; but a blind, impulsive instinct, unsentimental as that of 
the beasts that perish. We agree entirely with our intelligent friend whose letter has 
been ab-eady quoted from at the beginning, that " Paul, in Romans ii. 15, is labour- 
ing to check the presumption of the Jews who were claiming pre-eminence in the 
congregation at Rome, because of their superior knowledge of the law of Moses, by 
showing their pretensions vain because they had not kept the law ; whereas the 
Gentiles in the cliurch, who never were under the law of Moses, showed that the 
work of the law was written iu their hearts by the word of the truth of the gospel 
by faith, and therefore they kept the righteousness of the law ; and by so doing 
they proved that they were the true circumcision, all of wdiich is clearly and beauti- 
fully argued out to the close of the chapter." 

MoTT Haven, Westchester, N.Y., May 6, 1859. 



From the Preface to Fourth EDrnoN. 

Seven years have elapsed since the issue of the third edition of this work. For a 
considerable time there haA'-e been no copies of it for sale, being, as the phrase is, 
"out of print." A fourth edition has been called for both in Britain and America. 
To this call the author has reluctantly responded ; not that he did not think it 
desirable ; but because of the additional labour it would append to that already on 



XVlll. AUTHOR S PREFACE. 

hand in the preparation of the manuscript of the third volume of the Exposition of 
the Apocalypse, styled Eureka. The earnest request, however, of many acquainted 
with Elpis Israel ; and the commencement of a subscription in Britain and the 
States to induce compliance, at length overcame this reluctance. For the first time 
since correcting the proof of the first edition in 1849, he has read the work again. 
He knew what ought to be there ; but memory after seventeen years, did not serve 
him with the assurance that he would so find it. It was reasonable to suppose that 
a longer and maturer study of " The Word " might render him dissatisfied with 
much originally written ; and that he would have to strike out many pages that 
could not now be endorsed. 

But on reviewing the original, the author was agreeably surprised on finding 
he had so few corrections to make. He has made about half-a-dozen in the first 
part ; and less than that number in the second. In the third part he found it 
necessary to make the most. If he were to re-write the book, he might go more 
into detail upon some points ; while other parts, perhaps, he might retrench ; but 
iipon the whole, considering that it is designed for an elementary work, he does 
not know that it would thereby be much improved. The emendations made will 
place this revise in accord with the author's latest work ; so that he considers this 
revised edition is the best. 

The most important correction has been that emendatory of allusions to the 
resurrection. The understanding of this " element of the beginning of the oracles of 
the Deity'" — (ttol^elov ttjq cip-^-qg nov Xoyiiov rov Qeov — Hel). v. 12; vi. 2 — has 
been enlarged in the author's mind since 1849. The question was not then the 
resurrection m its detail; but the necessity of resurrection and a judgment at all 
in view of the immortality of the soul and its instantaneous translation to heaven 
or hell at the death of the body. Such a dogma as this is a logical denial of both 
resurrection and judgment. It makes them both superfluous, and absolutely unneces- 
sary. It was, therefore, met at that time by a testimony, pure and simple, for 
resurrection of the body, as indispensable to the incorruptibility and immortality of 
the dead. But the times are now changed. The Laodiceanism of the Clerical Apos- 
tacy has been fully exposed and refuted ; and the resurrection and judgnnent are 
just at hand. The time had therefere overtaken us in which the author found it 
necessary, in Eureka, to expound more in detail so important a consequence of the 
speedy and thieflike advent of Christ. Some, who have no objection to resurrection 
in general, are very much dissatisfied with it in its particulars. The resurrection 
ordained of the Deity does not suit them ; and, therefore, they loudly disapprove it ! 
They contend, 

1. That the judgment of the righteous, in which they are giving account of 
themselves to God, is in the present life, after which they will have no account 
to give. 

2. That resurrection of an imperfect body is not taught directly or indirectly 
in the word. 

3. That the righteous are not brought to judgment. 

4. That the Scriptures teach positively and without reservation, that the 
righteous are raised incorruptible. 

With such theorists it is judgment first, and resurrection afterwards ! This is 
an invej'sion of the divine order, by which the whole subject is confused. The 
author believes that the divine order is the best ; and he believes, too, that the 
righteous are raised incorruptible ; biit also, that the raising is not one instanta- 
neous event like the lightning's flash ; but an order of development, initiated in 
the dust, and ultimating after judgment in incorruptibility and deathlessness of 
body. 

[The rest of this Preface has to do n-ith the progress of the icorld to date, 

namely to Decemher, I860.] 



PUBLISHER'S NOTES. 



The Publisher being related to the Author as a brother in the Lord, besides being 
one of his trustees, has not hesitated to make such emendations as he believes the 
Author will approve on his reappearance in the land of the living. 

These emendations and changes are, however, very slight, and are here men- 
tioned only for the information of the community that so justly values Blpis Israel 
and its Author ; and also " to cut off occasion " from some who would not be slow 
to accuse the publisher of " tampering " with the work of the deceased. 

The changes made in the main range themselves round two or three heads as 
follows : — Improved translations ; improved expositions due to increased knowledge ; 
expunged errors ; notes on the Author's wonderful political prevision. 

With regard to translations, it must be admitted that Dr. Thomas sometimes 
altered " the Authorised Version," as it is called, without improving matters, 
illustrating somewhat the remark of Mr. Fowler, the phrenologist ; who said that 
he would sometimes "use rather extravagant language" in his expositions. The 
present edition of Elpis Israel restores the A.V. rendering of 2 Tim. iii. 16 (page 
5 and elsewhere), "All Scripture is given by inspiration." The R.V. rendering will 
not be defended by those who know the truth of the matter. On page 8, " word '* 
has been substituted for " will and testament," as defining the Lord's purpose, the 
reason for which appears in another note. On page 59, the A.V. translation of Rom. 
xiii. 1-5 has been restored. On page 62, the Hebrew idiom should not be lifted into 
the English. The footnote illustrates the matter. Some mistaken expositions have 
arisen out of this ; hence it is here mentioned. On pages 120-21 "justification" has 
been restored, and "pardon" deleted; also "in" has been restored, and "by" 
deleted in the expressions " in the name of Jesus," &c. On page 164, the usage of 
Elohim in the singular is referred to in the footnote, and the suggestion that it 
should be rendered " gods " throughout Genesis is deleted. Other changes in trans- 
lation are very few and are too unimportant to mention. The publisher is indebted 
to an esteemed fellow-labovirer for valued help in the revisions here noted. 

With regard to improved expositions due to increased knowledge the follow- 
ing notes may suffice. In the section on " The Sabbath," the author speaks of " the 
first day of the week " as " the Lord's day." But it is never so styled in the 
Scriptures, and the author in Eureka, Vol. I., p. 159 (a later writing), himself more 
forcibly draws the ti-ue distinction between " Sunday " and " the Lord's day." The 
latter phrase has therefore been deleted from this edition of El'pis Israel. 

On page 46, the reference to the nature of the resurrection-body on its emergence 
from the grave is corrected, in harmony with the author's preface to the fourth 
edition, and Anastas'is, a later work on Resurrection and Judgment. 



XX. PUBLISHER S NOTES. 

On page 151, the publisher has ventured to suggest in a footnote that the 
scriptures do here and there suggest reasons for the expression of God's will in His 
appointed " principles of religion." He believes that his impressions on this matter 
are derived from Dr. Thomas' other expositions. 

On page 213, the author speaks of the Lord's " covenant with Abraham ; " and 
a footnote gives the publisher's reasons for retaining this scriptural term and rejectiug 
" will " and " testament " in the argument following. For the expression " substitu- 
tional testator" (page 218), the publisher has substituted the term "Mediator," 
which is the true equivalent of the inspired original. Those who choose to closely 
compare the old and new editions of Elpis Israel in these pages, will see that the 
author's argument gains in lucidity and force by the change. 

On pages 325, 328, paragraphs indicated, which Avere either lacking in cleamess, 
or rendered erroneous by lapse of time, have been re-written on the basis of later 
expositions by the author. 

There are very few expunged errors. Among these is the erroneous paraphrase 
of Christ's reply to the thief on the cross (omitted in this edition from the exposition 
on page 56), and mentioned here only because it has, unfortunately, gained consider- 
able currency. 

On pages 267-8, the erroneous supposition that Ex. xvii. and Num. xx. refer to 
one and the same incident (the smiting of the rock by ]\roses), is corrected by a slight 
change in the wording. The first incident was before the giving of the law, in 
Horeb, and the smiting was in ohedience to a command of God. The second incident 
was nearly forty years later, at Kadesh, about 150 miles north of Horeb, and 
smiting was not commanded-— only speaking to the rock. 

From page 279, the table of Chronology to the Captivity has been omitted. 
The period is dealt with in ChronikonHehraikon, which is appended to this edition of 
Elpis Israel; but further light on some points is still to be desired. 

From pages 329 and 377, some erroneous anticipations that the efflux of time has 
manifested concerning the end of the age, have been omitted as a matter of course. 

A more agreeable class of notes is that referring to the author's wonderful 
Political Prevision on the basis of the prophecies. A mere reference to some of the 
footnotes in this edition will suihce for illustration. See pages 104, 303, 340, 342, 
348, 349, &c. Also the paragraph at the end of the preceding " Biographical Notes." 

A few more " Notes " on the progress of the world, as anticipated by Elpis 
Israel fifty years ago, will be found in the Appendix at the end of the book. 

BirnimgJiam, December, 1003. 



ELPIS ISRAEL. 



PaRT FIRST. 

THE RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

. . [ CHAPTER I. 

THE NECESvSITY OF A REVELATION. 

The necessity of a Revelation to make known tlie origin, reason, and tendency of 
things in relation to man and the world aronnd him. An intelligible mystery, 
and the only source of trne wisdom ; bnt practically repudiated by the 
Moderns. — The study of the Bible urged, to facilitate and promote which is the 
object of this volume. 

Revolving upon its own axis, and describing an ample circuit through 
the boundless fields of space, is a planet of the solar system bearing 
upon its surface a population of over a thousand millions subject to 
sin, disease, and death. This orb of the starry heavens shines with a 
glory similar to that of its kindred spheres. Viewed from them, it is 
seen sparkling " like a diamond in the sky ; " and with the rest of the 
heavens, declares the glory of God, and shows forth the handiwork of 
Him that did create it. 

This celestial orb, which is a world or system of itself, is styled 
THE EARTH. It is the habitation of races of animals which graze its 
fields, lurk in its forests, soar through its atmosphere, and pass 
through the paths of its seas. At the head of all these is a creatnre 
like themselves, animal, sensual, and mortal. He is called islyn. He 
has replenished the earth and subdued it, and filled it with his renown. 
His crimes, however, rather than his virtues, have illlustrated and 
distinguished him with an unhappy pre-eminence above all other 
created things. His heart is evil ; and, left to its uncontrolled 
impulses, he becomes licentious, merciless, and more cruel than the 
fiercest beast of prey. 

Such is the being that claims the independent sovereignty of the 
globe. He has founded dominions, principalities, and powers ; he 
has built great cities, and vaunted himself in the works of his hands, 
saying, " are not these l)y the might of my power, and for the honour 
of my majesty ? " He repudiates all lordship over him, and claims 



Z RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

the inalienable and' inherent right of self-government, and of establish- 
ing whatever civil and ecclesiastical institutions are best suited to his 
sensuality and caprice. Hence, at successive periods, the earth has 
become the arena of fierce and j^andemoniac conflicts ; its tragedies 
have baptised its soil in blood, and the mingled cries of the oppressor 
and the victim have ascended to the throne of the Most High. 

Skilled in the wisdom which comes from beneath, he is by nature 
ignorant of that which is " first pure, and then peaceable, gentle, and 
easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality 
and without hypocrisy." This is a disposition to which the animal 
man under the guidance of his fleshly mind has no affinity. His 
propensit}^ is to obey the lust of his nature ; and to do its evil works, 
"which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, 
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, sects, 
envying, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like."'* All these 
make up the character of the world, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of 
the e3^e, and the pride of life," upon which is enstamped the seal of 
God's eternal reprobation. " They who do such things shall not 
inherit the kingdom of God," but " they shall die." 

Such is the world of human kind ! The great and impious enenw 
of God upon the earth. Its mind is not subject to His law, neither 
indeed can it be. What shall we say to these things ? Is the world 
as we behold it a finality ? Are generations of men, rebellious against 
God, and destroyers of the earth, to occupy it successively through an 
endless series of ages ? Are men to repeat the history of the past for 
ever ? Is the earth always to be cursed, and sin and death to reign 
victorious ? Who can answer these inquiries ? If v*^e survey the 
starry canopy, thence no sign or voice is given expressive of the truth. 
They declare the eternal power and divinity of their Creator, but they 
speak not of the destiny of the earth or of man upon it. If we 
question the mountains and hills, the plains and valleys, the rivers, 
seas, and oceans of the earth, and demand their origin, why they were 
produced, to what end they were created, their rocks, their strata, 
their fossils, or deposits, afford us no response. Turn we to man and 
ask him, "Whence camest thou, and what is thy destiuy? Whence 
all the evil of thy nature, why art thou mortal, who made thee, who 
involved thee in this wide-spread ruin and calamity on every side? " 

Ask an infant of days the history of the past, and he can as well 
detail it, as man can answer these inquiries without a revelation from 
Him who is before all, and to whom is known from the beginning all 
He intends shall come to pass. So true is it,' that, imaided by light 
from heaven, " since the beginning of the world men have not heard, 
nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, God, beside 
thee what is prepared for him that waiteth for him ;" but adds the 
apostle in his comment upon these words of the prophet, " God hath 
revealed these things unto us by his spirit '••• '••' •••' which things we 
(apostles) speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but 
which the holy spirit teacheth ; interpreting spiritual things in spiritual 
words. "^ 

a Gal. V. 19. b 1 Cor: ii. 9, 10, 13. 



AX INTELLIGIBLE MYSTERY. 3 

To the Bible, tlien, all must come at last if they would be truly 
wise in spiritual tilings. Tliis is a great truth wliicli few of the sons of 
men liave learned to appreciate according to its importance. A man 
may be a theologian profoundly skilled in all questions of " divinity ;" 
he may be well versed in the mythology of the heathen world ; be 
able to speak all languages , of the nations ; compute the distances of 
orb from orb, and weigh them in the scales of rigid calculation ; he 
may know all science and be able to solve all mysteries, — but if, 
with all this, he be ignorant of '* the things of the spirit ;" if he 
know not the true meaning of the Bible ; he seemeth only to be wise, 
wdiile he is, in fact, a fool. Therefore, the apostle saith, " let no man 
deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this 
w^orld, let him become a fool, that he ma)^ be wise. For the w^isdom 
of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh 
the wise in their own craftiness. And again, the Lord knoweth the 
thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory 
in men.'""' If our contemporaries could only attain to the adoption of 
this great precept, " let no man glory in men," they would have 
overleajoed a barrier which as a fatal obstacle prevents myriads from 
understanding and obeying the truth. 

But while God lightly esteems the wisdom of the reputed wise, 
there is a wisdom which He invites all men to embrace. This is styled 
'''' the icisdojii of God in a TYiystery ; ^^ it is also termed "the hidden 
icisdom which God ordained before the world, which none of the 
])rinces of this world knew." It is said to be hidden in a mystery, 
l:)ecause until the apostolic age, it was not clearly made known. This 
wdll appear from the following texts : — " Now to him that is of power 
to establish }'ou according to the revelation of the mystery, ivhich loas 
kept secret {^uiwlq aiiovioig) in the times of the ages, but now (in the 
time, or age, of the aj^ostles) is made manifest, and by the scriptures 
of the prophets made known to all nations for the obedience of 
faithy^ " By revelation God made known unto me, Paul, the 
]\rYSTERY, which in other ages (former ages under the law of Moses) 
was not made known unto the sons of men as it is noic revealed unto 
the holy apostles and prophets by the spirit, that the Gentiles shoidd 
be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in 
Christ by the gospeV'^ 

Here is " the knowledge of God," in which are contained " exceed- 
ing great a ad precious promises," the understanding of which is able 
to make a man wise, and " a partaker of the divine nature." Now, 
although these hidden things have been clearly made known, they 
still continued to be styled the mystery ; not because of their unin- 
telligibility, but because they were once secret. Hence, the things 
preached unto the Gentiles, and by them believed, are styled by 
Paul, " the m^^stery of the faith," and " the mystery of godliness," 
some of the items of which he enumerates ; such as '' God manifest in 
the flesh, justified by the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the 
Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glorj.''^ Thus an 

« 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10, 13 : iii. 18-21. '> Rom. xvi. 25, 26. c Epli. iii. 3, 5, 6. 
d I'Tini. iii. 9, 16. 



4 KUDLMENTS OF THE AVORI^D. 

intelligible mystery characterises the once hidden wisdom of God, and 
becomes the subject matter of an enlightened faith. Tliis, however, is 
not the case with regard to religious systems which are not of tlie 
truth. UnintelKgil)le mystery is the ultima ratio for all difficulties 
which are insoluble by the symbols of ecclesiastical communities, 
whose text of universal application is, that '' secret things belong to 
God, but the things which are revealed, to ns and to our children." 
This is true ; but, then, these things which were secret in the days of 
Moses, have been revealed by God to the apostles and prophets for our 
infonnation. 

No one has any right to set iip his own ignorance as tlie limit of 
what God hath revealed. A thing may be unknown to such a man, 
but it doth not therefore follow that it is either absolutely unintelligible 
or a secret. He may not know of it, or, if explained to him, he may 
not have intellect enough to comprehend it, or his prejudices, or 
sectarian bias may darken his understanding — this by no means makes 
the thing unintelligible or mysterious to other peo^jle. All that such 
persons have a right to say is, " We do not know anything al)Out it." 
They may confess their own ignorance, and resolve to look into the 
matter, or not ; but they are presumptuously overstepping the bounds 
of propriety to venture to do more. Those who have no secondary 
interests to subsen^e apart from the truth only desire to know that 
they may believe and do. But, where to know more, would jeopardize 
the " vested interests " of a sect, and extort the confession of its 
leaders and members, that they were in error and knew not the truth, 
investigation is discouraged, and the things proscribed as too sjDecula- 
tive and mysterious for comprehension, or, if understood, of no ]3ractical 
utilit}^ In this way mankind infold themselves as in the mantle of 
their self-esteem. They repress all progress, and glorify their own 
ignorance by detracting from things which they fear to look into, or 
apprehend are far above their reach. 

Beside glorying in men, this unfortunate peculiarity of the human 
mind has developed the organisation of a system of things impiously 
hostile to the institutions and wisdom of Jehovah. It is a system of 
many subordinate parts. It is animated by one spirit which, under 
various modifications, pervades and actiiates the whole. It is an evil 
S])irit, and may be detected wherever the dogma of unintelligible 
mystery is at work. The name of this system is " Mysteky." Its 
baneful effects liegan to be visible in the apostolic age. It was then 
styled, ''the Mystery of Iniquity,'' which, as was predicted, has, like a 
cancer, eaten out the truth, and substituted in place thereof a civil 
and ecclesiastical constitution, styled "Harlots and the Abominations 
of the Earth," such as we liehold on every side. 

"Wisdom," say the scriptures, ''is the principal thing; therefore 
get wisdom ; and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, 
and she shall ])romote thee : she shall bring thee to honour, when thou 
dost embrace her. She shall give to thy head an ornament of grace ; 
a crorvn of glory shall she deliver to thee." If thou would'st, reader, 
get this wisdom, happy art thou if thou findest it. " For the 
merchandize of it is better than the merchandize of silver, and the 



NO IJdHT APART FROM THE LAW AND THE TESTDiONY. 5 

gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, and all 
things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her. Length of 
days is in her right hand ; and in her left hand riches and honour. 
Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She 
is A Tree (^f Life to them that lay hold upon her ; and happy is CA^ery 
one that retaineth her."" 

Before the Son of God sent forth his apostles to proclaim tlie 
gospel of the kingdom in his name, " He opened their understandings 
that they might understand the scriptures." If thou wouldst gain the 
knowledge of the wisdom of God which is so inestimable, and which 
is contained in the word they preached, tliou must also be the subject 
of the same illumination. This is indispensable ; for there is no 
obtaining of this commodity except through the scriptures of truth. 
These "are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which 
is in Christ Jesus. For all scripture is given by inspiration of God, 
and is profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for 
instruction in righteousness : that the man of God may be perfect, 
thoroughly furnished unto all good works. "^ What more dost thou 
want than perfection, and a crown of life and glory in the age to 
come ? Search the scriptures with the teachableness of a little child, 
and thy labour will not be in vain. Cast away to the owls and to the 
bats the traditions of men, and the prejudices indostrinated into thy 
mind by their means ; make a whole burnt offering of their creeds, 
confessions, catechisms, and articles of religion ; and, after the example 
of the Ephesian disciples, hand over your books of curious theological 
arts, and burn them "before all." These mountains of rubbish have 
served the purposes of a dark and barbarous age ; the Avord, the word 
of the living God alone, can meet the necessities of the times. 

Let the example of the nol:)le-minded Bereans l:>e ours. Tliey 
searched the scriptures daily to s?e if the things taught by the apostle 
were worthy of belief; " therefore they believed."'^ If, then, not even 
the preaching of an apostle was credited unaccompanied by scriptural 
investigation, is it not infinitely more incumbent on us that we sliould 
bring to a like test the opinions and precepts of the uninspired and 
fallible professional theologists ol our day? Let us believe nothing 
that comes from " the pulpit," " the altar," or the press, not demon- 
strated by the grammatical sense of the scriptures. Let us be contented 
witli nothing less than a " thus it is written," and a "thus saitli the 
Lord ;" for He has laid it down in His law, that no one is worthy of 
belief wdio does not speak after this rule. " To the law and to the 
testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there 
is no light in them."« If then their light be darkness, how great is 
that darkness. 

The scriptures can do every thing for us in relation to the light. 
This is known, felt, and kee?ily appreciated by all interested in the 
support of error. Hence, in the days of Diocletian, one of the pagan 
predecessors of Constantine, a decree was issued commanding the 
surrender of all copies of the Holy Scriptures : for it was found that 

a Pvov. iii. 14-18. ^ 2 Tim. iii. 15-17. <= Acts xix. 19. d Acts xvii. 11, 12. 
« Isaiah Adii. 20. 



O RUDBfENTS OF THE WORLD. 

SO long as they obtained circulation the Christian doctrine could never 
be suppressed. The Popes, as deadly, and more insidious, enemies of 
the truth than the 23agan Roman emperors, followed the example of 
Diocletian. The Bible and popery are as nmtually hostile as the light 
of the sun and the thick darkness of Egypt that might be felt. But 
it is not paganism and popery alone that are j)i"actically hostile to a 
free and untrammelled investigation of the word of God. The Pro- 
testant world, while it deludes itself with the conceit that " the Bible, 
the Bible alone, is the religion of Protestants " — while it spends its 
thousands for its circulation among the nations in their native tongues 
— is itself hostile to the belief and practice of what it proclaims. The 
" Bible alone " is not its religion ; for if it were, why incumber its 
professors with the " Common Prayer," Thirty-nine Articles, and all 
the other " notions " of a similar kind ? To believe and practice the 
Bible alone would, be a sufficient ground of exclusion from all " ortho- 
dox churches." When Chillingworth uttered the sentiment, there 
was more truth in it than at this day ; but now it is as far from the 
fact as that Protestantism is the religion of Christ. 

To protest against an error, such as Romanism, and to affirm that 
every man has a right to worship God according to the dictates of his 
own conscience, is a very different thing to believing and obeying the 
gospel of the Kindgom of God. and walking in all the institutions of 
the Lord blameless. To do this would unchristianize a man in the 
estimation of State churches and sectarian denominations ; for the 
Bible religion requires a man to " contend earnestly for the faith once 
delivered to the saints,^^ ^ which in these times cannot be done without 
upheaving the very foundations of the self-complacent, self-glorffying 
and self -laudatory communions of the antipapal constitution of things. 
It is true that no man or i^ower has a right to interfere between God 
and the conscience ; but, it is also true that no man has a right to 
worship God as he pleases. This is a Protestant fallacy. Man has a 
right to tvorship God only in the way God has Himself appointed. 
" In vain do ye worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments 
of men." This is the judgment pronounced by the wisdom of God 
ujDon all worship which He has not instituted. He declares it to be 
vain worship; concerning which the apostle to the Gentiles says: 
"Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy- 
day, or of the new moon, or of the Sahhath ; let no man beguile you 
of your reward in. a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels. 
Be not subject to dogmatisms (doy/xani^EcrOe) after the conunandments 
and traditions of men ; which things have indeed a show of wisdom 
in wiLT--woj{SHTP and humility." ^ 

These exhortations aj^ply to all faith and worshi]). Papal and 
Protestant. If Popery judges men in meats, Protestantism doth the 
same in drinks, and in the Sabbath ; they both judge men in holy- 
days and " movable feasts " ; and though Protestantism repudiates the 
worshipping of angels, it proclaims in its " fasts," " preparations," 
" concerts," &c., a voluntary humility, and celebration of " saints and 
martyrs," renowned in legendary tales for " the pride that apes 

« Jude 3. &{'ol. ii. 1(5, 18. 



PROTESTANT FALLACIES — ^AN EXHORTATION. 7 

Immility." Let the reader search the scriptures from beginning to 
end, and he will nowhere find such systems of faith and worship as 
those comprehended in the Papal and Protestant systems. The gospel 
of the Kingdom of God in the name of Jesus is not preached among 
them ; they are connnunions which are nncircumcised of heart ; 
theological dissertations on texts, called "sermons," are substituted for 
^' reasoning out of the scriptures " — for " expounding and testifying 
the Kingdom of God, and persuading men concerning Jesas, both 
out of the law of Moses, and out of the Prophets ; " "• Puseyism, 
Swedenborgianism, and all sorts of isms, to which in apostolic 
times the world was a total stranger, run riot among them ; the 
lusts of the flesh, of the eye, and of the pride of life have extinguished 
even the energy and zeal of the antipapal rebellion out of which they 
have arisen ; they are dead, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, and 
therefore the time is come to cut them off as a rotten branch from the 
good olive tree.'' Let therefore every man that would eschew the wrath 
which is begun, and who would become an heir of the kingdom of 
God, sa,ve himself irqfci the unlioly, lifeless, and effete denominations of 
these " Latter Days." By remaining in them, a man partakes of their 
evil deeds, and subjects himself to their evil influences. The word of 
man has silenced the word of God in their midst; and religion has 
degenerated into a professional commodity sold for cash according to 
the taste which most prevails in the soul-markets of the world. 

Let us then " cease from men, whose breath is in their nostrils, 
for wherein are they to be accounted of." " They be blind leaders of 
the blind " in whom is no light, because they speak not according to 
the law and the testimony of God. Let us repudiate their dogmatisms; 
let us renounce their mysteries ; and let us declare our independence 
of all human authority in matters of faith and practice outside the 
word of God. The scriptures are able to make us wise, which the 
traditions of " divines " are not. Let us then come to these scriptures, 
for we have the assurance that he who seeks shall find. But we must 
seek by the light of scripture, and not permit that light to be obscured 
by high thoughts and vain imaginations which exalt themselves 
against the knowledge of God. Great is the consolation that " the 
wise shall understand," and " shall shine as the brightness of the 
firmament." Be this then our happiness, to understand, believe, and 
do, that we may be blessed in our deed, and attain to the glorious 
liberty and manifestation of the sons of God. 

To the Bible then let us turn, as to "a light shining in a dark 
place," and, with hiimility, teachableness, and independence of mind, 
let us diligently inquire into the things which it reveals for the obedi- 
ence and confirmation of faith. The object before us then will be, to 
present such a connected view of this tinithful and wonderful book a^ 
will open the reader's eyes, and enable him to understand it, and 
expound it to others, that he may become " a workman that needeth 
not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth ;" and be able 
intelligently to " contend for the faith ;" and by " turning many to 
righteousness, to shine as the stars for ever and ever." 

a Acts xxviii. 23, 31. 6 Romans xi. 17, 20, 22. 



8 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

In effecting this purpose, we must proceed as we would with any 
other book, or in teaching any of the arts and sciences ; namely, begin at 
the beginning, or witli the elements of things. This was the method 
adopted by the spirit of God in the instruction of the Israelites by 
Moses. He began His revelations by giving them, and us through 
them, an account of the creation of the heavens and the earth ; of 
animals ; and of man. This then would seem to be the proper place 
for us to start from ; and as we have the system comi3letely revealed, 
which they had not, we may extend our inquiries into the reason, or 
philosophy of things farther than the}^ Be this, then, our com- 
mencement ; and may the Lord himself prosper our endeavours to 
decipher and understand His word, and to disentangle it from the 
crude traditions and dogmatisms of contemporary theologies, useful in 
their beginnings as " oppositions " to the Mystery of Iniquity, but now 
" waxed old and ready to vanish away " with the thing they have 
antagonised ; but which, though consumptive of the civil and ecclesias- 
tical tyranny of the Image of the Beast, have by their glosses in effect 
taken from the people " the Key of Knowledge," and thus shut up the 
Kingdom of Heaven against men. Our endeavour will be to restore 
this "Key," that they ma}^ understand " the mysteries of the kingdom," 
and " have right to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates 
int^the city."^ And this we will do if God permit. 

a Rev. xxii. 14. 



THE PRE-ADAMIC WORLD. 



CHAPTER 11. 

THE CREATION OF THE EARTH AND MAN. 

The earth before the creation of Adam the habitation of the angels who kept not 
their first estate — A geological error corrected — The Sabbath day and the 
Eord's day — The formation of man and woman — The " great mystery " of her 
formation out of man explained — Eden — The garden of Eden — The original 
and future paradises considered— Man's primitive dominion confined to the 
inferior creatiires and his own immediate family — Of the two trees of the 
garden — And man in his original estate. 

The general account of tlie work of the six days is contained in the 
first chapter of Genesis ; while in the second is presented, among 
other things, a more particular narrative of the work of the sixth day 
in the formation of the first human pair. 

Let the reader peruse the history of the creation as a revelation to 
himself as an inhabitant of the earth. It informs him of the order in 
which the things narrated would have developed themselves to his 
view, had he been placed on some projecting rock, the spectator of 
the events detailed. He must remember this. The Mosaic account 
is not a revelation to the inhabitants of other orbs remote from the 
earth of the formation of the boundless universe; but to man, as a 
constituent of the terrestrial system. This will explain w^h^^ light is 
said to have been created four days before the sun, moon, and stars. 
To an observer on the earth, this w^as the order of their appearance; 
and in relation to him a primary creation, though absolutely pre- 
existent for millions of ages before the Adamic Era. 

The duration of the earth's revolutions round the sun previous to 
the work of the first day is not revealed ; but the evidences produced 
by the strata of our globe show that the period w'as long continued. 
There are indeed hints, casually dropped in the scriptures, which 
would seem to indicate that our planet w^as inhabited by a race of 
beings anterior to the formation of man. The apostle Peter, speaking 
of the "false teachers " that would arise among Christians " by reason 
of wdiom the w^ay of truth would be evil spoken of," illustrates the 
certainty of their " damnation " by citing three cases in point ; namely, 
that of certain angels ; that of the antediluvian world ; and that of 
Sodom and Gomorrha. Now the earth, w^e know, w^as the ]Aace of 
judgment to the contemporaries of Noah and Lot, and seeing that these 
three are warnings to inhabitants of earth, it is probable that they 
are all related to things pertaining to our globe in the order of their 
enumeration — first, judgment upon its pre- Adamic inhabitants; 
secondly, upon the antediluvian world, which succeeded them ; and 
thirdly, upon Sodom after the flood. 



10 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

Peter says that " the Angels," or pre-Adamic inhabitants of the 
Earth, " sinned ;" and Jude, in speaking of the same subject, reveals 
to lis the nature of their transgression. He says, verse 6, " the angels 
maintained not their original state, but forsook their own habitation." 
From which it would appear that they had the ability to leave their 
dwelling if they pleased ; secondly, that they were sometimes 
employed as messengers to other parts of the universe; this their name 
(ayyeXoc, aggelos, one sent) implies : thirdly, that they were forbidden 
to leave their habitation without special coimnand to do so ; and 
fourthly, that they violated this injunction and left it. Having trans- 
gressed the divine law, God would not forgive them ; " but casting 
them down," or driving them back, "he committed them to everlast- 
ing chains of intense darkness to be reserved for judgment."" Hence, 
it is clear, when they were driven back to their habitation, some fur- 
ther catastrophe befel them by which their committal to darkness was 
effected. This probably consisted in the total wreck of their abode, 
and their entire submergence, with all the mammoths of their estate, 
under the waters of an overwhelming flood. Reduced to this extremity, 
the earth became " without form and empty ; and.darkness overspread 
the deep waters."^ Its mountains, hills, valleys, plains, seas, rivers, 
and fountains of waters, which gave diversity of " form " to the surface 
of our globe, all disappeared; and it became ''void,'' or empty, no 
living creatures, angels, quadrupeds, birds, or fishes, being found any 
more upon it. 

Fragments, however, of the wreck of this pre-Adamic world have 
been brought to light by geological research, to the records of which 
we refer the reader, for a detailed account of its discoveries, with this 
remark, that its organic remains, coal fields, and strata, belong to the 
ages before the formation of man, rather than to the era of the 
creation, or the Noachic flood. This view of the matter will remove 
a host of difficulties, which have hitherto disturbed the harmony 
between the conclusions of geologists and the Mosaic account of the 
physical constitution of our globe. 

Geologists have endeavoured to extend the six days into six thou- 
sand years. But this, with the scriptural data we have adduced, is 
quite unnecessary. Instead of six thousand, they can avail themselves 
of sixty thousand ; for the scriptures reveal no length of time during 
which the terrene angels dwelt upon our globe. The six days of 
Genesis were unquestionably six diurnal revolutions of the earth upon 
its axis. This is clear from the tenor of the sabbath law. " Six days 
shalt thou labour (0 Israel) and do all thy work : .. but the seventh day 
is the sabbath of the Lord thy God : in it thou shalt not do any 
work : for in six days the Lord made heaven and eartli, the sea, and 
all that in them is, and rested the seventh day : wherefore the Lord 
l)lessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." Would it be any fit 
reason that, because the Lord worked six periods of a thousand or 
more years each, and liad ceased about two thousand until the giving 
of the law, tlierefore the Israelites were to work six periods of twelve 
hours, and do no work on a seventh period or day of like duration? 

« 2 Peter ii. 4. ^ Genesis i. 1. 



OF THE SABBATH DAY. 11 

Would any Israelite or Gentile, unspoiled by vain philosophy, come to 
the conclusion of the geologists by reading the sabbath law ? We 
believe not. Six days of" ordinary length were ample time for Omni- 
potence, with all the power of the universe at command, to re-fonn the 
earth, and to place the few animals upon it necessary for the beginning 
of a new order of things upon the globe. 

But what is to become of the Evil Angels in everlasting chains of 
darkness, and who shall be their judge ? Jude says, they were com- 
mitted " for the judgment of the GeeatDay." He alludes to this great 
day in his quotation of the prophecy of Enoch, saying : " Behold, the 
Lord Cometh with ten thousand of his Holy Ones (angels of his might 
— -1 Thess. i. 7) to execute judgment upon all, &c." This coming of 
the Lord to judginent is termed by Paul, " the Day of Christ " — 
"a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus 
Christ " — during which, the saints, with angels ministering to them, 
having lived again, will reign with Christ a thousand years on the 
earth. "- This is the Great Day of Judgment, a period of one thousand 
years, in which Christ and his saints will govern the nations right- 
eously ; judge the raised dead in his kingdom according to their works ; 
and award to the rebel angels the recompense awaiting their trans- 
gression. " Kn'Ow ye not," saitli Paul, " that ive (the saints) shall judge 
angels ? How much" more things that pertain to this life ? " ^ From 
these data, then, we conclude that these angels will be judged in the 
Day of Christ by Jesus and the saints. 

In the period between the wreck of the globe as the habitation oF 
the rebel angels and the epoch of the first day, the earth was as 
described in Gen. i. 2, " without form and void, and darkness upon 
the face of the deep "—a globe of mineral structure, submerged in 
water, and mantled in imiDenetrable night. Out of these crude mate- 
rials, a new habitation was constructed, and adapted to the abode of 
new races of living creatures. On the first day, light was caused to 
shine through the darkness, and disclose the face of the waters ; on 
the second, the atmosphere called Heaven was formed, by which the 
fog was enabled to float in masses above the deep ; on the third, the 
waters were gathered together into seas, and the dry, called the Earth, 
appeared. It was then clothed with verdure, and with fruit and 
forest trees, preparatory to the introduction of herbivorous creatures 
to inhabit it. On the fourth day, the expanded atmosphere became 
trans^^arent, and the shining orbs of the universe could be seen from 
the surface of the earth. Our globe was then placed in sach astro- 
nomical relation to them as to be subjected by their influences to the 
vicissitades of day and night, simmier and winter ; and that they 
might serve for signs, and for years. Thus, the sun, moon, and stars 
which God had made, by giving the earth's axis a certain inclination 
to the plane of the ecliptic, became diffusive of the most genial 
influences over the land and sea. It was now a fit and beautiful 
abode for animals of every kind. The dwelling place was perfected, 
well aired, and gloriously illuminated by the lights of heaven ; food 

« 2 Thess. ii. 2 ; Rev. v. 10 : xx. 4, 11-15. & 1 Cor. vi. 3. 



12 RUDLAIENTS OF THE WORLD. 

was abundantly provided ; and the mansional estate waited only a 
joyous tenantry to be complete. 

This was the work of the fifth and sixth days. On tlie fifth, fish 
and water-fowl were produced from the teeming waters ; and on the 
sixth, cattle, reptiles, land-fowl, and the beasts of the earth, came out 
of " the dust of the ground," male and female, after their several 
kinds.'* 

But among all these there was not one fit to exercise dominion 
over the animal loodd, or to reflect the divine attributes. Therefore, 
the Elohim said, " Let us make man in our image, after our likeness : 
and let them have dominion over the living creatures." So Elohim 
created man in His image ; male and female created He them. Fur- 
ther details concerning the formation of the human j^air are given in 
the second chapter of Genesis, verses 7, 18, 21-25. These passages 
belong to the work of the sixth day ; while that from verse 8 to 14 
pertains to the record of the third ; and from 15 to 17 is parallel with 
chapter i. 28-31, which completes the history of the sixth. 

" Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host 
of them ; " and the Jehovah Elohim, on reviewing the stnpendous and 
glorious creation elaborated by the Sj)irit, pronounced it " very good." 
Then the Elohim or " Morning Stars sang together, and all the Sons 
of God shouted for joy."^ 

OF THE SABBATH DAY. 

On the seventh day, which was neither longer nor shorter than the 
days which preceded it, " God ended his work which he had made ; " 
and because of this notable event, " he blessed and sanctified it." A 
day is blessed, because of what is or will be imparted to those who are 
commanded to observe it. The sanctification of the day implies the 
setting of it apart that it might be kept in some wa}^ different from 
other clays. The n^anner of its original observance may be inferred 
from the law concerning it when it was enjoined upon the Israelites. 
To them it was said, " Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy." 
If it be asked, how was it to be kept holy ? the answer is, '' in it thou 
shalt not do any work, thou, nor any one or thing belonging to thee ; " 
and the reason for this total abstinence from work is referred to the 
Lord's own example in that " he rested the seventh day." The nature 
of its observance in the ages and generations, and the recompense 
thereof, is well expressed in the words of Isaiah : — " If thou turn away 
thy foot from the sabbath from d(3ing thy pleasure on my holy day ; 
and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable ; and 
shalt honour him not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own 
pleasure, nor speaking thine own words : then shalt thou delight thy- 
self in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places 
of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father ; for 
the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."^ 

In this passage, the conditions are stated upon which faithful 
Israelites might inlierit the blessing ty2oified by the rest of the seventli 
day. They were joyfully to devote themselves to the way of the Lord. 

« Gen. i. 20-25 : ii. 19. & Job xxxviii. 4-7. c Jsaiah Iviii. 13, J4. 



A SIGN FOR E^-ER BETWEEN GOD A^D ISRAEL. 13 

Tliev were not simply to abstain from work, yawning and grumbling- 
over tlie tecliousness of the day, and wishing it were gone, that they 
might return to their ordinary course of life ; but they were to esteem 
it as a delightful, holy, and honourable day. Their pleasure was to 
consist in doing what the Lord required, and in talking of "the 
exceeding great and precious promises" He had made. To do this 
was " not speaking their own words," but the Lord's words. Such an 
observance as this, however, of tlie sabbath day, implies a faithful 
mind and a gracious disposition as the result of knowing the truth. 
Xeither antediluvian nor postdiluvian coidd " call the sabbath a de- 
light " who was either ignorant or faithless of the import of the 
promise, " thou slialt delight thyself in the Lord, and ride upon the 
high ]Dlaces of the earth, and feed with the heritage of Jacob." A 
man who simply looked at the seventh day as a sal^l^ath iu which he 
was interdicted from pleasures, and conversation agreealile to him, and 
from the money-making pursuits in which he delighted, would regard 
the day more as a weekly punishment, than as joyous and lionoural)le. 
Though he might mechanically abstain from work, he did not kee]3 it 
so as to be entitled to the blessing which belonged to the observance 
of the day to the Lord. It was irksome to him, because being faithless 
he perceived no reward in keeping it ; and " without faith it is 
impossible to please God." 

The reward to antediluvian and postdiluvian patriarchs and 
Israelites, for a faithful observance, or commemoration of Jehovah's 
rest from His creation-work, was " delight in the Lord, riding upon 
the high places of the earth, and feeding with the heritage of 
Jacob." This was neither more nor less than a promise of in- 
heriting the Kingdom of God, which is a summary of " the things 
hoped for and the tilings imseen" or the subject matter of the faith 
that pleases God. When that kingdom is established, all who are 
accounted worthy of it will " delight or joy in the Lord ;" and occupy 
"the high places of the earth," ruling over the nations as His associate 
kings and priests ; and share in the " new lieaA^ens and earth," in 
which dwells righteousness, when Jerusalem shall be made a rejoicing, 
and her people Israel a joy.'* The knowledge and belief of these 
things was the powerful and transforn.ing motive which caused Abel, 
Abraham, Moses, Jesus, &c., to " call the sabbath a delight, holy of 
the Lord, and honourable ; " and to observe it as the sons of Belial 
cannot possibly do. But while this was the motive, even faith, which 
actuated the sons of God in their keejDing holy the seventh day, 
Jehovah did not pennit the faithless to transgress or desecrate it with 
impunity. We know not what penalty, if any, was attached to its 
violation before the flood ; but its desecration under the Mosaic consti- 
tution was attended with signal and summary A^engeance, as will appear 
from the following testimonies : — 

1. " And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speak thou unto 
the children of. Israel, saying, verily my sabbaths ye shall keep; 
for it is a sign hettceen me and yon throughout your generations ; 

a Matt. XXV. 23, 34 ; Rev. ii. 26, 27 : iii. 21 : v. 9, 10 : xx. 4 ; Dan. vii. 18, 22, 27 ; 

Isaiali IxA'. 17, 18. 



14 KUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

that ye may know tliat I am the Lord that doth sanctily .you/ Ye shall 
keep the sabbath therefore : for it is holy unto you. Every one that 
defileth it shall surely be ])\\t to death : for whosoever doeth amj icork 
therein, that soul shall he cut off from among his people. Six days 
may work be done, but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest^ holy 
to the Lord ; ichosoever doeth any icovk on the sabbath day shall surely 
he 'put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the 
sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a per- 
petual covenant. It is a sign hetioeen me and the children of Israel 
for ever ; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the 
seventh day he rested and was refreshed.'"'"' 

2. " Remember (0 Israel), that thou wast a servant in the land 
of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through 
a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm ; therefore the Lord thy 
God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day."'' 

3. " Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there 
shall be to you a holy day, a sabbath of rest to the Lord : whosoever 
doeth work therein shall be put to death. Ye shall kindle no fire 
throughout your habitations on the sahhath day.''^ 

4. " And while the children of Israel were in the wilder n€.ss, they 
found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. And they 
that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, 
and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward, because 
it was not declared what should be done to him. And the Lord said 
unto Moses, the man shall be surely ]out to death : all the congregation 
shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation 
brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he 
died ; as the Lord commanded Moses. ""^ 

5. " Thus saith the Lord ; take heed to yourselves, and hear no 
burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem : 
neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabl^ath day, 
neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I com- 
manded your fathers. And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently 
hearken unto me, saitli the Lord, to bring in no burden through the 
gates of this city on the sabbath day, ••• ■•• ■■••' to do no work therein : 
then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes 
sitting upon the throne of David, riding in cliariots and upon horses, 
they, and their ]:)rinces, the men of Judali, and the inhabitants of 
Jerusalem : and this city shall remain for ever. And they shall come 
from the cities of Judali, and from tlie places about Jerusalem, and 
from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the 
moimtains, and from the south, bringing burnt-ofterings, and sacrifices, 
and meat-offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto 
the tem])le of the Lord. But if ye will not hearken unto me to 
hallow tlie sabloath day, and not to Ijurden, even entering in at the 
gates of Jerusalem on the sablxith day ; tlien Avill I kindle a fire in 
the gates thereof, and it shall devour tlie palaces of Jerusalem, and 
it shall not be quenched." * 

« Exodus xxxi. 12-17. & Deut. v. 15. c Exodus xxxv. 2, 3. d Nnmb. xv. 32-3(5. 

« Jer. xvii. 21-27. 



THE WEAK AND BEGGARLY ELEMENTS. 15 

6. " Abide ye every man in his tent ; let no man go out of liis 
place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh 
day."« 

From these testimonies it is clear that it M^as unlawful for servants 
in the families of Israel to light fires, cook dinners, harness horses, 
drive out families to the synagogues, or priests to the temple to 
officiate in the service of the Lord. The visiting of families on the 
sabbath day, the taking of excursions for health or for preaching, and 
conversing about worldly or family, or any kind of secular affairs, was 
also illegal, and punishable with death. The law, it will be observed 
also, had regard to the seventh, and to no other day of the week. It 
was lawful to do all these things on the first or eighth day (some 
particular ones, however, excepted), but not on the seventh. On this 
day, however, it was " lawful to do good " ; but then, this good was 
not arbitrary. Neither the priests nor the people were the judges of 
tlie good or evil, but the law only which defined it. " On the saTDbath 
days the priests in the temple profaned the sabbath, and were blame- 
less ; " ^ for the law enjoined them to offer " two lambs of the first 
year, without spot, as the burnt-offering of every sabbath." '^ This 
was a profanation of the seventh-day law, which prohibited " any 
work " from being done ; and had not God commanded it, they would 
have been " guilty of death." It was upon this ground that Jesus 
was " guiltless " ; for he did the work of God on that day in healing 
the sick as the Father had commanded him. 

" The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sal) bath : 
therefore," said Jesus, " the Son of Man is Lord also of the sabbath 
Day." ^ It was a wise and beneficent institution. It prevented the 
Israelites from wearing out themselves and their, dependents by inces- 
sant toil ; and revived in them a weekly remembrance of the law and 
promises of God. It was, however, only " a shadow of things to 
come,'''' the substance of which is found in the things which pertain to 
the Anointed One of God. ^ It w^as a 23art of " the rudiments of the 
world " inscribed on " the handwriting of ordinances that w^as against 
us, which was contrary to us," and which the Lord Jesus " took out 
of the way, nailing it to his cross." When he lay entombed he rested 
from his labours, abiding in his place all the seventh day. Having 
ended his work, he arose on the eighth day, " and was refreshed." 
The shadowy sabbath disappeared before the brightness of the rising 
of the STin of righteousness ; who, having become the accursed of the 
law, delivered his brethren from its sentence upon all. 

The ordinances of the law of Moses are styled by Paul " the rudi- 
ments," or " elements of the world,", which, in Galatians, he -also terms 
" weak and beggarly elements, whereunto they desired again to be in 
bondage." They evinced this desire by " observing days, and months, 
and times, and years ;"-^ not being satisfied with the things of Christ, 
but seeking to combine the Mosaic institutions with the gospel. This was 
Judaizing, and the first step to that awful apostacy by which the world 
has been cursed for so many ages. When the Mosaic constitution, as 

« Exodus xvi. 29. 6 Matt. xii. 5. c Numb, xxviii. 9-10. d Mark ii. 27. 
e Col. ii. 14, 16-17. / Gal. iv. 3, 5, 9, 10. 



16 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

"the representation of the knowledge and the truth," had "waxed 
old" by the manifestation of the substance to a sufficient extent to 
nidlify it, it "vanished away" by being "cast down to the ground " 
by the Roman power, and with it the law of the seventh day. li^vew 
before its abolition, Paul expressed his fear of the Galatians " lest he 
should have bestow^ed labour upon them in vain," seeing that they 
were becoming zealous of the ordinances of the law. They seemed 
not to understand that the Mosaic economy was only a temporary- 
constitution of things, " added because of transgressions, till the seed 
should come;'' that when he came, "he redeemed them from the curse 
of the law, being made a curse for them ;" and that therefore they 
had nothing to fear, nor to hope for from keeping, or transgressing 
its commands. They had got it into their heads that " except they 
were circumcised and kept the law of Moses, as well as believed and 
obeyed the gosjjel of the kingdom, they could not be saA^ed."" There- 
fore they " desired to be under the law " and began to busy tliemselves 
about " keeping the sabbath," and doing other works which Moses 
had enjoined upon Israel. Paul w^as A^ery nmch distressed at tliis, 
and describes himself as "travailing in birth again until Christ be 
formed in them." They had been delivered from "the yoke of bond- 
age " by putting on Christ ; but by seeking to renew their connexion 
with Moses' law^, they were selling their birth-rigbt for a mess of 
pottage. "I say unto you," saith Paul, "that if ye be circumcised, 
Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man 
that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the ichole laic. Christ is 
become of no effect imto you, whosoever of you are justified by the 
law ; ye are fallen from grace." A partial ol^servance of the law can 
do no one any good. , If he kept the sabbath in the most approved 
manner, but neglected the sacrifices, or ate swine's flesh, he was as 
accursed as a thief or a robber ; for to one under the law it saith, 
" Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are 
written in the book of the law to do them ;" hence even the sinless 
Jesus was cursed by it, because he was crucified ; for it is written, 
" Cursed is every one that liangeth on a tree."^ What hope then is 
there for Jew or Gentile of escaping the curse of the law, seeing that 
from the very nature of things connected with the ^jresent state of 
Jerusalem it is impossible to observe it, save in the few particulars of 
" meat and drink, or in resj^ect of the sabbath partially," &c. The 
observance of the seventh day was regulated by the Mosaic law, and 
the penalties clue to its " desecration," or " profanation," are pro- 
nounced by it alone ; but it is clear that the law being taken out of 
the way, or abolished, by Jesus, who nailed it to his cross, there 
remain no more retributions for the non-observance of its appointments ; 
and therefore there is no transgression in working or pleasure-taking, 
or in speaking one's own words on the seventh day. 

On the first day of the creation-week God said, " Let there be 
light, and there was light ; " so on the first day of the week " the 
TRUE light" came forth from the darkness of the tomb "like dew from 
the womb of the morning." ••• '• ••• It is a day to be much remembered 

a Acts XV. 1, 5. & Gal. iii., iv., v. 4. 



THE ASSEiMBLY ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK. 17 

by liis people, because it assures them of their justification " in him," 
of their own resurrection to life, and of the certainty of his ruling or 
"judging the world in righteousness " as Jehovah's king, when they 
also shall reign with him as kings and priests to God.** This da}^ is 
also notable on account of the sjDecial interviews which occurred 
between Jesus and his disciples after his resurrection.^ He ascended 
to heaven on this day, even the forty-third from his crucifixion ; and 
seven days after, that is the fiftieth, being ^ '* '■•' " the day of 
Pentecost," the gift of the Holy Spirit was poared out upon the 
apostles, and the gospel of the kingdom preached for the first time in 
his name. 

Power being in the hands of their enemies, the Christians of the 
Hebrew nation still continued to observe the seventh day according to 
the custom. Hence we find the apostles frequenting the synagogues 
on the sabbath days and reasoning with the people out of the scrip- 
tures."^ To have done otherwise would have been to create an 
unnecessary prejudice, and to let slij^ one of the best opportunities of 
introducing the gospel to the attention of the Jewish public. They 
did not forsake the synagogues until they were expelled. While they 
frequented these, however, on the seventh day, they assembled them- 
selves together with the disciples whose assemblies constituted the 
churches of the saints and of God. They ordained elders over these 
societies, and " taught them to observe all things whatsoever Jesus 
had commanded them."^ In his letter to the Hebrew Christians, Paul 
exhorts them "not to forsake the assembling of themselves together."^ 
Such an exhortation as this implies a stated time and place of 
■ assembly. On what day, then, did the churches of the saints meet to 
exhort one another so as to provoke to love and to good works ? 
Certainly not on the seventh day, for then the apostles were in the 
synagogues. What day then more appropriate than the first day of 
the week ? Now it cannot be affirmed that the saints were comiuanded 
to meet on this day, because there is no testimony to that effect in the 
New Testament. But it is beyond dispute that they did assemble 
themselves together on the first day of the week, and the most reason- 
able inference is that they did so in obedience to the instruction of the 
apostles from whose teaching they derived all their faith and practice, 
which constituted them the disciples of Jesus. 

To keep the first day of the week to the Lord is possible only 
for the saints. There is no law, except the emperor Constantine's, 
that coixunands sinners to keep lioly the first, or eighth, day, or 
Sunday, as the Gentiles term it. For a sinner to keep this day unto 
the Lord he must become one of the Lord's people. He must believe 
the gospel of the kingdom and name of Christ, and become obedient 
to it, l^efore any religious service he can offer will be accepted. He 
must come under law to Christ b}^ putting on Christ before he can 
kee23 the Lord's day. Having become a Christian, if he would keep 
the day to the Lord, he must assemble with a congregation of New 

a Rom. iv. 25 : viii. 11 ; 1 Cor. xv. 14, 20 ; Acts xvii. 31 ; Rev. v. 9, 10. & John 

XX. 19, 26. c Acts xvii. 2, 17 : xviii. 4 : xix. 8. ^ Matt, xxviii. 20 ; Acts ii. 42 : 

xiv. 22, 23. e Heb. x. 25. 



18 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

Testament saints, and assist in edifying and provoking them to love 
and good works, in showing forth the death of Jesus, in giving 
thanks to the Father, in celebrating the resurrection of Christ, and in 
praising and blessing God. Under the gospel, or " law of liberty," 
he is subjected to no "yoke of bondage" concerning a sabbath day. 
It is his delight when an opportunity presents, to celebrate in this way 
the day of the resurrection. He requires no penal statutes to compel 
him to a formal and disagreeable self-denial, or " duty ; " for it is his 
meat and drink to do the will of his Father who is in heaven. 

The law of Moses was delivered to the Israelites and not to the 
Gentiles^ who were therefore " without the law." " What things 
soever the law saith, it says to them who are under the law ; " conse- 
quently the nations were not amenable to it ; and though they 
obtained not the blessings of Mount Gerizim (unless they became 
faithful Jews by adoption), neither were they obnoxious to the curses 
of Mount Ebal."^ The faithless Jews and Gentiles are equally aliens 
from the precepts of Christ and his apostles. What these prescribe is 
enjoined upon the disciples of Jesus. They only are " under law to 
Christ." " What have I," says Paul, "to do to judge them that are 
without ? God judgeth them."^ He has caused the gospel of the 
kingdom to be preached to sinners " for the obedience of faith." 
When they are judged, it will be for "not obeying the gospel of the 
Lord Jesus Christ,"'' and not because they do not "go to church," or 
do not keep a sabbath instituted by a semi-pagan emperor of the 
fourth century. The sabbath God requires sinful men to observe is 
to cease from the works of the flesh, as completely as He rested from 
the work of creation on the seventh day, that they may enter into 
the millennial rest that remaineth for the people of God.^ 

Men frequently err in their speculations from inattention to the 
marked distinction which subsists in the scriptures between those 
classes of mankind termed " saints " and " sinners." They confound 
what is said to, or concerning, the one, with what is said in relation to 
the other. Relatively to the institutions of God they are as near or 
afar off as are " citizens " and " foreigners " to the laws and constitu- 
tion of the United States. " What the law saith, it saith to them who 
are under the law." This is a principle laid down by Paul con- 
cerning the law of Moses, which is equally true of the codes of all 
nations. " Citizens " are the saints, or separated ones, of the par- 
ticular code by which they are insulated from all other people ; while 
" foreigners " or" aliens " from their commonwealth are sinners in 
relation to it ; for they live in other countries in total disregard of its 
institutions, and doing contrary to its laws, and yet are blameless : so 
that if they were to visit the country of that commonwealth, they 
would not be punished for their former course, because they were not 
under law to it. Let them, however, while sojourning there continue 
their native customs, and they would become guilty and worthy of the 
punishment made and provided for such offenders. 

It is a fact, that " God blessed and sanctified," or set apart, " the 
seventh day ; " and doubtless, Adam and his wife rested, or intermitted, 

« Deut. xxvii. 9-26. ^ 1 Cor. v. 12, 13. « 2 Thess. i. 7-10. d Heb. iv. 9-11. 



THE SABBATH IX THE Kl^s^GDOM OF GOD. 19 

tlieir horticultural tendance upon that day. Yea, we may go further 
and say, that it is extremely probable that " the sons of God " before 
the flood, worshipped Grod according to "His way " upon that day ; 
but in all the history of that long period, which intervened from the 
sanctification of the seventh day to the raining down bread from 
heaven for the Israelites in the wilderness,** there is not the least hint 
of any punishment for breakiog the sabbath day. Gruiltiness before 
God cannot therefore be argued against the Gentiles so as to entitle 
them to death or reprobation, predicated on the threatenings of the 
patriarchal code. Whatever the appointment might be, it was no doubt 
significative of the blessings to be obtained through observing it ; not 
alone, but in connexion with the other matters which made up " the 
way of God." 

As I have shown, the observance of the seventh day was obligatory 
•only upon the Israelites so long as the Mosaic code was in force, being 
" a sign " between God and them. The sabbaths belong to the land 
and people of Israel, and can be only kept according to the law 
while they reside in the country. This will appear from the fact that 
the law requires that "two lambs of the first year without spot" 
shoald be offered with other things " as the burnt-offering of every 
sabbath;" an offering which, like aU the offerings, &c., must be offered 
in a temple in Jerusalem where the liord has placed his name, and 
not in the dwelling places of Jacob. Israel must therefore be restored 
to their own country before even they can keep the sabbath. Then, 
when " the throne is established in mercy ; and he (the Lord Jesus) 
shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and 
seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness,"^ then, I sa}^ " shall the 
priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my 
sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, come near 
to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto 
me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord God : and they shall hallow 
my sabhaths.'"'' 

But these sabbaths will be no longer celebrated on the seventh 
day. They will be changed from the seventh to the eighth, or first day 
•of the week, which are the same. The " dispensation of the fulness of 
times,"'^ popularly styled the Millennium, will be the antitype, or 
substance, of the Mosaic feast of tabernacles which was " a shadow 
of things to come." In this type, or pattern, Israel were to rejoice before 
the Lord for seven days, beginning " on the fifteenth da}^ of the seventh 
month, when they had gathered the frait of the land." In relation to 
the first day of the seven, the law says, "it shall be a holy convoca- 
tion : ye shall do no servile work therein.'' This was what we call 
Sunday. The statute then continues, " on the eighth day," also Sunday, 
^' shall be a holy convocation unto you, and ye shall offer an offering 
made by fire unto the Lord : it is a solemn assembly ; and ye shall do 
no servile luork therein.''' Again, " on the first day shall be a sabbath, 
and on the" eighth day shall be a sabbath. "« Thus, in this " pattern 
<of things in the heavens," the first and eighth days are constituted 

« Exodus xvi., ^ Isaiah xvi. 5. ^ Ezek. xH\^ 15, 21. d Ephes. i. 10. 
e Lev. xxiii. 31-13. 



20 EUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

lioh' days in whicli no work was to be done. It also represents the 
pahn-bearing or victorions ingathering of the twelve tribes of Israel 
from their present dispersion to the land of their fathers, " when the 
Lord shall set his hand a second time to recover the remnant of his 
peoj)le. " 

Three times in four verses does Zechariah stjle the yearly going 
up of the Gentiles to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, 
there, the keeping of the feast of tabernacles ;^ an event which is 
consequent upon the destruction of the dominion represented by 
Nebuchadnezzar's image, and the re-establishment of the kingdom and 
throne of David. This national confluence of the Gentiles to Jerusalem 
is characteristic of Messiah's times ; and of the true or real festival of 
tabernacles, when he will " confess to God among the Gentiles, and 
sing unto his name," and " they shall rejoice with his people," Israel. '' 
Referring to this time, the Lord says, " the place of my throne, and 
the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dw^ell in the midst of 
the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name shall the House of 
Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, 
nor by the carcasses of their kings in their high places. ••• ••■' ■'■■" 
they have even defiled my holy name by their abominations that they 
have committed : wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger. 
Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcasses of their 
kings, far from me, and I loill divell in the midst of them for ever.'' ''' 
This is clearly a proj^hecy of what shall be hereafter, because the 
House of Israel still continues to defile God's holy name by their 
abominations ; but when this comes to pass they shall defile it "no 
more.'* 

After the declaration of these things, Ezekiel is commanded to 
show them the description of the temple which is destined to be " the 
house of prayer for all nations," with the ordinances, forms, and laws 
thereof. The Lord God then declares, " the ordinances of the altar in 
the day luhen they shall mahe it," and when the Levites of the seed of 
Zadok shall approach unto Him. The " cleansing of the altar," and the 
consecration of the priests, is then effected by the offerings of seven days. 
"And when these days are expired, it shall be, that upon the eighth day, 
and so forward, the priests shall make your burnt oft'eriugs upon the 
altar, and your peace offerings ; and I will accept you (0 Israel), saitli 
the Lorcl."^ Thus, the day of the Lord's resurrection from his. 
seventh-clay incarceration in the tomb, becomes the sahbath day of 
the future age which shall be hallowed by the priests of Israel, and 
be observed by all nations as a day of hol}^ convocation in which they 
shall rejoice, and do no manner of seiwile work at all. 

Constantine, though not a Christian himself, paid homage to the 
truth so far as to compel the world to respect the day on whicli Christ 
Jesns rose from the dead. Hence, in 328, he ordained that the day 
should be kej^t religiously, which a judaizing clergy construed into a 
sabl^atical observance according to the Mosaic law concerning the 
seventh day. This is the origin of that sabl:)atarianism which so 

«: Isaiah xi. 11. ^ Zecli. xiv. lG-1 9. '^ Rom. xv. 9, 10. ^i Ezek. xHii. 7-9. 

« verse 27. 



MODERN SAJffiATARIANISM. 21 

ludicrously, yet mischievously, illustrates the Blue Laws of Con- 
necticut," the zeal of the Agnews and Plumptres of the House of 
Commons, and the rhapsodies of the pietists of the passing day. These 
well-meaning persons, whose zeal outruns their knowledge, seem not to 
be aware that Christ and his apostles did not promulge a civil and 
ecclesiastical code for the nations, when they preached the gospel of 
the kingdom. Their object was not to give them laws and constitu- 
tions ; but to separate a peculiar peo^Dle from the nations who should 
afterwards rule them justly and in the fear of the Lord, when the 
dispensation of the fulness of times should be introduced.'' To be 
able to do this, these peculiars were required to be " holy, unblameable, 
and unreprovable before God."'' To this end instructions were delivered 
to them, that under the divine tuition " the}^ might be renewed in the 
spirit of their mind ; and put on the new man which after God's image 
is created in righteousness and true holiness." 

As for " those without " " who receive not 'the love of the truth, 
that they might be saved, God sent them a strong delusion, that they 
should believe a lie,"'^ as a punishment. They are left to govern them- 
selves by their own laws until the time arrives for Christ to take away 
their dominion and assume the sovereignty over them conjointly with 
" the people of the saints." If they please to impose upon themselves 
yokes of bondage, binding themselves to keep the first day of the week 
according to the Mosaic law oitheseventlidsij, they are left at liberty to 
do so. But for this act of " voluntary humility" they are entitled to 
no recompense from God, seeing that He has not required it of them. 
The rewards due for observing a judaized Lord's day voluntarily 
inflicted upon themselves ; or, tlie pains and penalties to which they 
may be entitled for its " profanation," are such, and such only, as 
result from the will and pleasur? of the unenlightened lawgivers of the 
nations. It is a wise regulation to decree a cessation from labour and 
toil for man and beast daring one day in seven ; but it betrays 
egregious misunderstanding of the scriptures, and singular super- 
stition to proclaim perdition to men's souls in flaming brimstone, 
if they do not keejD it according to the Mosaic law of the seventh 

All I need say in conclusion is, that if it be necessary to keep 
Sunday as the Jews were required to keep Saturday by the law of 
Moses, then those who make so much ado about sabbath-breaking are 
themselves as guilty as those they denounce for the unholy and pro- 
fane. " He that offendeth in one point is guilty of the whole." If 
they do not keep open shop, or perambulate the parks and fields, or 
take excursions, or go to jDlaces of public resort and amusement on the 
Lord's day — jet, they light fires in their dwellings and meeting houses, 
they entertain their friends at comfortable warm dinners, drive to 
church in splendid equipages, annoy the sick and distract the sober- 
minded with noisy bells, bury the dead, speak their own words, &c. — 
all of which is a violation of the divine law which saith, " Thou shalt 

« By these a woman was forbidden to kiss her cliiM on the sabbath ! ^ Acts 

XV. 14; 1 Cor. vi. 2; 2 Sam. xxiii. 3, 4 ; Titns ii. U. « Col. i. 22, 23 ; 1 Thess. 

ii. 19: iil. 13. d 2 Thess. ii. 10-12. 



22 RUDIMEXTS OF THE WORLD. 

not do any ivork, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy 
cattle ; " and " Thou shalt not speak thine oion tvords.'" This would 
certainly put to silence nearly all the preachers of the day; whose "ser- 
mons," when made by themselves, are emphatically their oivn in thoughts 
and words without dispute. It is not only ridiculous, but down right 
Pharisaism, the fuss that is made about breaking the sabbath. Let 
the zealots " first cast the beam out of their own eyes ; and then will 
they see clearly to cast out the mote from the eyes of others," If they 
would " keep the day to the Lord," let them believe and obey the 
gospel of the kingdom in the name of Jesus ; and then " continue 
steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of 
bread, and in prayers ""* on the " first day "; and cease from the works 
of sinful flesh^ every day of the week ; and they will doubtless 
" dehght in the Lord, and ride upon the high places of the earth, and 
feed with the heritage of Jacob in the kingdom of God," as the mouth 
of the Lord hath spoken. 

Of the things then which have been w^ritten under this head this 
is the sum. 

1. The six creation-days were each as long as the seventh, whose 
duration is defined by the Mosaic law ; and consequently the geological 
notion of their being six several periods of many centuries each, falls 
to the ground as a mere conceit of infidel philosophy. 

2. The Lord God ended His work on the seventh day, " and was 
refreshed " by the songs of the Morning Stars, and the joyous shouts 
of the Sons of God. 

3. To celebrate His rest He constituted it holy and a day of blessing. 
Hence it was commemorative of the past, and "a shadoio of things to 
come.'' 

4. The seventh day was observed by Adam and Eve as a day of 
delight before they became sinners. The immediate cause of their 
joyousness on the day of rest is not testified. It is certain it w^as not 
a burdensome day ; for sin had not yet marred their enjo3"ments. It 
was probably because of the gracious interviews granted them by the 
Lord God on that day ; and of the revelations made to them of the 
things contained in the blessing pronounced upon it when He " blessed 
and sanctified it." 

5. There is no record, or hint, of the existence of a j^enal statute 
for not observing the seventh day, from the sanctification of it till the 
raining down bread from heaven for the Israelites in the wilderness of 

Egjpt. 

6. The observance of the seventh day by absolute rest from every 
kind of work and pleasure-taking, accompanied by a peculiar sacrifice 
on the brazen altar of the temple, and spiritual delight in its blessed- 
ness, was its Mosaic celebration enjoined upon the Israelites, and their 
dependants in Palestine, and upon them alone. 

7. Its profanation by citizens of the commonwealth of Israel was 
punishable with deatli by stoning. 

8. Israel was especially commanded to remember the seventh day 
and keep it as appointed by the law ; because God in creating their 

« Acts ii. 42. I' Gal. v. U). 



SUMMARY OF THINGS CONCERNING THE SABBATH. 23 

world brought them out of Egypt, and rested from the work of its 
creation when he gave them a temporary and typical rest under Joshua 
in the land of Canaan. 

9. For an Israelite to remember the seventh day to keep it holy, 
spiritually as well as ceremonially, so as to obtain the blessing which 
it shadowed forth, he must have had an Abrahamic faith" in the pro- 
mised blessing, and have ceased or rested from the works of " sinful 
flesh." 

10. The blessing promised to Israelites, who were Abraham's sons 
by faith as well as by fleshly descent, for a spiritual observance of the 
seventh da}^ (and which, until " the handwriting," or Mosaic law, was 
blotted out and nailed to the cross, could not be spiritually observed 
and ceremonially profaned) was, that they should " delight in the 
Lord, ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed with the heri- 
tage of Jacob their father," when the time to fulfil the promises made 
to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, should arrive. 

11. The blessing pronounced on a national observance of the seventh 
day was the aninterrupted continuance of the throne of David, and 
gTeat national prosperity. Its desecration to be punished by the 
breaking up of the commonwealth of Israel and desolation of their 
country. 

12. The Mosaic observance of the seventh day was appointed as 
" a sign " between God and the twelve tribes of Israel. It was a holy 
day to them, and to be observed perpetually throughout their genera- 
tions.^ 

13. It was lawful for Israelites to do good on the seventh day ; 
but they were not permitted to be the judges of the good or evil. This 
was defined by the law. The priests 2Drofaned the sabbath by hard 
work in slaying and burning the seventh day sacrifices on the altar, 
yet they were blameless ; because this was a good work which the 
Lord of the sabbath commanded them to do. 

14. Having finished the toorh the Father had gi^?en him to do," on 
the sixth day of the week, Jesus, while siispended on the accursed 
tree, cried mth a loud voice, "It is finished / ""^ " All things were 
now accomj)lished," so that the Mosaic handwriting was blotted out, 
being nailed with him to the cross, and taken out of the way as a rule 
of life. The Lord Jesus " rested from his labours " on the seventh 
day in the silent tomb, and " his disciples rested according to the 
commandment."^ He abode in his place, and did not go out of it 
until the sabbath was at an end.-^ But, on the eighth day, styled also 
the first day, God gave him liberty ,» he left the tomb, and " was 
refreshed." Having " spoiled the principalities and the powers " con- 
stituted by the handwriting, he made the spoliation manifest, " triumph- 
ing over them in himself " {Evavro)), that is, in his resurrection ; thus, 
for ever delivering men from the bondage of the law, which, Peter 
says, "was a yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to 
bear."'^ With the abolition of the Mosaic handwriting the obligation 

n Rom. iv. 12, 18-22. Read the Avhole chapter diligently. ^ Matt. i. 17— the forty- 
two generations from Abraham to Chi'ist. Col. i. 26. " John xvii. 4. ^ John xix. 
28-30. e Luke xxiii. 56. If Mark xvi. J . 9 Matt, xxviii. 2. ^ Acts xv. 10. 



24 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. / 

to keep the seventh da}^ as a rule of spiritual life was cancelled as a 
matter of course. 

15. The apostles and Christians'^ of the Hebrew nation in Palestine 
continued a ceremonial observance of the Mosaic festivals ^ (the annual 
atonement for sin excepted) and of the seventh da}/, until the destruction 
of the commonwealth by the Romans, on the same principle that New 
Testament Christians among the nations now observe Sunday and the 
laws ; not as a means of justification before God, but as mere national 
customs for the regulation of society. 

16. Hebrew Christians who proposed to blend the law of Moses 
with that of Jesus as a spiritual rule, or means of justification, and 
consequently to keep holy the seventh day, were severely reproved by 
the apostles, who stigmatized it as " Judaizing "'^ {'luvhdi^eLy). 

17. The judaizing Christians endeavoured to impose the observance 
of the law upon the Gentile converts, which would have compelled 
them to keep holy the seventh day. But the apostles and elders of 
the Christian community at Jerusalem jDositively forbad it, and wrote 
to them, saying, " We have heard that certain who went out from us 
have troubled you with words subverting your souls, saying, ' Be 
circmncised, and keep the law ;' to whom we gave no such conmiand- 
ment." On the contrary, " it seems good to the Holy Spirit, and to 
us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things : 
that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, arid from blood, and from 
things strangled, and from fornication ; from which if ye keep your- 
selves, ye shall do well."'^ 

18. Upon the first day of the week (or day after the seventh, and 
therefore sometimes styled the eighth day), the disciples of Christ 
assembled to show forth his death, and to celebrate his resurrection ; 
which, with an enduring rest from the works of " sinful flesh," was 
all the sabbatizing they practised. 

19. There is no law in the scrijDtures requiring the nations to 
keep this day in an^^ manner whatever during his absence at the 
right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. So long as they continue 
faithless and disobedient to the gospel of the kingdom, neither nations 
nor individuals can present an acceptable observance of the day 
before the Lord ; on the principle that " Jehovah is far from the 
wicked, whose way and sacrifice are an abomination to the Lord : " *" 
— and, 

20. The " first day " was judaized by Constantine, the man-child 
of sin,^ and his clergy. His present representative is the Italian high 
priest of Papal Christendom. When his power, and that of his kings, 
is finally destroyed in " the burning flame ; " when Israel is engrafted 
into their own olive again, and the nations are subdued to the glorious 
sceptre of the king of saints — then will this day become the holy 
sabbath, " blessed and sanctified " of God instead of the shadowy 
seventh day, which was merely " a sign " of the things which will then 
have come to pass. 

« Acts xxi. 20. ^ verse 24-20. '• Gal. ii. 14. 'l Acts xv. 24-29. « Prov. xv. 8, 9, 
26-29. / Rev. xii. 2-5. 



IIIE FORiJATION OF MX^. 25 



THE FORM.VTION OF MA.N. 
" Out of the gromid wast thou taken ; for dust thou art." 

That " the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the 
sabbath," is a truth of general appHcation to all the institutions of 
God. Upon this principle, man was not made for religion, but religion 
was made for liim. If this be true, then it follows that it was adapted 
to nian as God had formed him. Hence, the institutions of religion, 
if it be of God, mil alwaj^s be found in harmony with his constitution, 
and not at variance with it. They are devised as a remedy for certain 
irregularities which have invaded his intellectual and moral nature ; 
by which, phenomena have been superinduced which are destructive 
of his being, Now the exact adaptation of the Bible religion to the 
curative indications suggested by the intellectual, moral, and physical 
infirmities of human nature, which ever3''one who understands it cannot 
fail to perceive,^ — proves that the mind which framed it is divine ; and 
that the religion of the scriptures, and the constitution, of man, are the 
work of one and the same creator. God is truly the only wise physician, 
whose practice is based upon perfect knowledge ; for He alone (and 
they to whom He hath revealed it) knows " ichat is in man.'''"- Hence, 
no incongruities are discoverable in " His way " when His method of 
cure is understood. 

In medicine, a scientific practice is directed, and founded upon a 
knowledge of the structure or mechanism of the body, the motive 
power thereof, and of the functions which are manifested by the working 
of this power on its several parts. The absence of this knowledge in a 
professional, constitutes empiricism ; and is one cause of such vast 
multitudes " dying,'' as it is said, ''of the doctor.'" Being ignorant of 
the motive power of the living creature, the}'' are as unsuccessful in 
correcting its irregularities, as a watchmaker who was ignorant of the 
j)rinciples and laws by which a timej)iece was moved, would be in 
rectifying its errors. Now this may be taken in illustration of the 
predicament of others who undertake the " cure of souls." To treat 
these as "a workman that needeth not to be ashamed," a man 
should be acquainted with " souls " as God hath formed and con- 
stituted them. He should know what " a living soal " is ; what 
its condition in a liealthy state ; what the peculiar morbid affection 
under which it languishes ; what the nature of the cure indicated ; 
and what the divinely appointed means by which the indications may 
be infallibly fulfilled. An attempt to " cure souls " without understand- 
ing the constitution of man as revealed by Him who created him, is 
mere theological experimentalism ; and as bootless, and more fatally 
destructive than the emjoiricism of the most ignorant pretenders to the 
healing art. What ! men undertake to " cure souls," and not know 
what a soul is ; or to imagine it a something, which it is admitted 
cannot be demonstrated by " the testimony of God." This is hke 
pretending to repair a timepiece without knowing what constitutes a 

« John ii. 25. 



26 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

watch, or clock, or while imagining it to be a musical box, or any other 
conceivable thing. 

Speculation has assumed that the soul is something in the human 
body capable of living out of the body, and of eating, drinking, 
feeling, tasting, smelling, thinking, singing, and so forth ; and of the 
same essence as God Himself. In times past some have busied them- 
selves in calculating how many such, souls could stand on the point of 
a needle ; a problem, however, which, still remains unsolved. A vast 
deal is said in " sermons " and systems about this idea ; about its 
supposed nature, its wonderful capacity, its infinite value, its immor- 
tality, and its destiny. I shall not, however, trouble the reader with it. 
We have to do with. " the law and the testimony ; " and as they are 
altogether silent about such a supposed existence, we shall not occupy 
our pages in superadding to the obsolete print concerning its attri- 
butes, which has already merged into the oblivion of the past. I 
allude to so much as this, because it is made the foundation corner- 
stone, as it were, of those experimental systems of spiritual cure, which 
are so popular with the world, and so utterly exclusive and prescrip- 
tive of the divine method. 

Upon the supposition of the existence of this kind of a soul in the 
human body, are based the current notions of heaven, hell, immortality, 
infant salvation, purgatory, saint-worship, Mariolatry, spiritual millen- 
niumism, metempsychosis, &c., &c. Its existence both in the body and 
out of the body being assumed, it is assumed also to be immortal. An 
immortal disembodied existence requires a dwelling place, because 
something must be somewhere ; and, as it is said to be virtuous or 
vicious according to its supposed life in the body, and post mortem 
rewards and punishments are affirmed — this dwelling-place is exhi- 
bited as an elysium, or, as an orthodox poet sings, " a place of 
goblins dam'd." 

To deter men from crime, and to move them to " get religion " 
that their souls may be cured of sin, frightful pictures are painted, 
sometimes on canvas, sometimes on the imagination, and sometimes 
sculptured on stones, of the crackling and sulphurous flames, 
hideous devils, and horrid shapes, which fill the Tartarian habitation 
of the immortal ghosts of wicked men. This destiny of condemned 
ghosts was a part of the " vain philosophy " of the Greeks and 
Romans before the advent of Christ. It was introduced into the 
churches of the saints soon after " God granted repentance to the 
Gentiles."" But^ as the apostles taught the resurrection of the mortal 
body'' the dogmatism of the Greeks was variously modified. Some 
admitted the resurrection of the dead ; but, as it interfered with their 
hypothesis about souls, they said it was already past ;'^ and conse- 
quently, that " there is no resurrection of the dead."^ This gentilizing 
the hope of the gospel filled Paul with zeal, and caused him to pen the 
fifteenth chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians to counteract its 
pernicious influence. He wrote to Timothy to put him on his guard 
against it ; and styles the gentilisms, " profane vain babblings ; and 

« Acts xi. 18. '' Rom. viii. 11; 1 Cw. xv. 42-54. '' 2 Tim. ii. 18. 
d 1 Cor. XV. 12. 



RESULTS OF EKROE CONCERNING " SOULS." 27 

oppositions of science falsely so called."" He exhorts liim to skim 
them, and " not to strive about words to no profit " ; for they " would 
eat as doth a canker y^ 

If there were no other evidence in Paul's writings of inspiration, this 
prediction would be sufficient to establish it. It has come to pass 
exactly as he foretold it. The dogma of an immortal soul in mortal 
sinful flesh has eaten out the marrow and fatness, the flesh and sinew, 
of the doctrine of Christ ; and has left behind only an ill-conditioned 
and ulcerated skeleton of Christianity, whose dry bones rattle in the 
*' winds of doctrine " that are blowing around us, chopping and 
changing to every point of the compass. The apostles taught two 
resurrections of the dead ; one at " the manifestation of his presence " 
- — £Tri(paveia rrjg Tvapovaiag avrov — EPIPHANEIA tees parousias hautou ; '' 
the other, at the delivering up of the kingdom to God at the end ^ of 
the dispensation of the fulness of times. But this did not suit the 
theory of dogmatists. They resolved the first into what they term 
" a glorious resurrection of spiritual life in the soul " ; and the second, 
into a re-union of disembodied ghosts with their old mortalities to be 
sent back whence they came. In this way they reduce the second 
resurrection to a very useless and superfluous affair. Their systems 
send " souls " to their account as soon as death strikes the bodies 
down. Some torment them in purgatory, or in an intermediate state ; 
others send them direct into unmitigated pimishment ; while both, 
after they have suffered for thousands of years before trial and 
conviction, re-unite them to their bodies ; and if it be asked for what 
purpose? system replies, " to be judged ! " Punish souls first and 
judge them after ! This is truly human, but it is certainly not divine 
justice. The truth is, that this article of the creed is brought in to 
defend " orthodoxy " against the imputation of denying the resurrec- 
tion of the body, which would be a very inconvenient charge in the 
face of the testimony of God. But this will not avail ; for, to believe 
dogmas that make the resurrection of the mortal body unnecessary 
and absurd is equivalent to a denial of it. In saying that there was 
no future resurrection, Paul charged the Corinthians with the mortal 
sin of repudiating the resurrection of Jesus ; " for," said he, " if the 
dead rise not," as ye say, "then Christ is not raised." Their heresy 
ate out this truth, which stands or falls with the reality of the "' first 
resurrection " at his coming.*' 

The question of " infant salvation " and " non-elect infant 
damnation," also rests upon the dogma before us. " Orthodoxy " sends 
some infants to hell and some to heaven ; though many " orthodox " 
persons are getting heartily ashamed of this part of the creed. The 
apprehension of the damnation of their " immortal souls " on account 
of " original sin," has given rise to the Eomish conceit of the rhan- 
tismal regeneration of infants by the Holy Spirit in the scattering of 
a few drops of water upon the face, and the use of a certain form of 
words. This has been recently declared to be regenerative of infant 
souls by an English court of law ! This question was actually gravely 

« 1 Tim. vi. 20. b2 Tim. ii. 14, 16, 17. " 1 Thess. iv. 14-17 ; 2 Epist. i. 7-8: 
ii. 8. ^Rev. xx. 5 ; ] Cor. xv. 24. « verse 23. 



28 RUDBIENTS OF THE WORLD. 

discussed by bishops, priests, lawyers, and ministers, in tlie year of 
grace 1849 ! So true is it that " great men are not always wise ; 
neither do the aged understand judgment."" 

As far as the infant is itself concerned this Romish ceremony is of 
no importance, for it does it neither good nor harm, in one sense, 
however, the subject of "the ordinance" is deeply injured. He is 
indoctrinated b}^ system into the notion that he was truly baptized 
when rhantismally " regenerated ; " and, therefore, when he is grown 
he troubles himself no more about the matter. Alas, what havoc the 
apostacy has made with the doctrine of Christ ! Believers' baptism 
transmuted into rhantizing an unconscious babe for the regeneration 
of its " inmiortal soul !" Would such a thing ever have been thought of 
but for the Nicolaitan " oppositions of science," " which," says the Lord 
Jesus, " I hate " ?^ I trow not. 

How important, then, it is that we should have a scriptural under- 
standing of the constitution of man. If it should appear by an 
exposition of the truth, that there is no such kind of soul in the 
universe as that conceited by the pagan Greeks and Romans, and 
gentilized into the doctrine of the apostles by contem]3orary perverters '' 
of the gospel, the faith and hope of which it hath ulcerously con- 
sumed—and handed down to us by "orthodox divines " — and fondled 
in these times as an essential ingredient of a true faith : — what becomes 
of the " cure of souls " by the dogmatical specifics of the day? They 
are resolved into theological empiricism, which is destined to recede 
like darkness before the orient brightness of the rising truth. 

Let us then endeavour to understand ourselves as God has revealed 
our nature in His word. On the sixth day, the Elohim gave the word, 
saying, " Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." In this 
word was life, spirit, or energy. " It was God. All things were made 
by it, and without it was not any thing made that was made."'^ Hence, 
says Elihu, " the Spirit of God hath made me, and the f->reatli 
of the Almighty hath given me life ;"^ or, as Moses testifies, " the 
Lord God formed man, the dust of the ground, and breathed into his 
nostrils the breath of lives ; and man became a Living Soul."-^ 

Now, if it be asked, what do the scriptures define " a living soul " 
to be ? — the answer is, a living natural, or animal, body, whether of 
birds, beasts, fish, or men. The phrase living creature is the exact 
synonym of living soul. The Hebrew words nephesh cliaijiah are 
the signs of the ideas expressed by Moses. Nephesh signifies crea- 
ture, also life, soul, or breathing frame from the verb to breathe : 
chayiah is of life — a noun from the verb to live. Nephesh 
chayiah is the genus which includes all species of living creatures ; 
namely, Adam man, beme beast of the field, chitu wild beast, rcmesh 
reptile, and ouph fowl, &c. In the common version of the scriptures, 
it is rendered living soul; so that under this form of expression the 
scriptures sj^eak of " all flesh " which breathes in air, earth, and sea. 

Writing about body, the apostle says, " there is a natural body, and 
there is a spiritual body.'' But, he does not content himself with 

a Job xxxii. 9. '' Rev. ii. 6, 15. <■' Gal. i. -7-9. '^ John i. 1-5. '' Jol) xxxiii. 4. 

/Gen. ii. 7. 



ALL SOULS. 29 

simply declaring this trutli ; he goes further, and proves it by quoting 
the words of Moses, saying, " For so it is written, the first man Adam 
was made into a living soul — etc i^vxh^ iiiotrav ; " and then adds, " the 
last Adam into a. spirit giving life, eIq irveviia i^iooiroiow.''"' Hence, in 
another place, speaking of the latter, he says of him, " Now the Lord 
is the spirit — o ce Kupioc to irveviJia kamy. And we all., with nn veiled face, 
beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into his 
image from glory into glory, as by the Lord the S'pirit — airo Kvpiov 
Tvvivfxarocy^' 

The proof of the apostle's proposition that there is a natural hody 
as distinct from a spiritual bod}^, lies in the testimony, that " Adam 
was made into a living soul ; " showing that he considered a natural, 
or animal body, and a living soul, as one and the same thing. If he did 
not, then there was no jDroof in the quotation, of what he affirmed. 

A man then is a body of life in the sense of his being an animal, 
or living creature — nephesh chayiah adam. As a natural man, he has 
no other pre-eminence over the creatures God made, than what his 
peculiar organization confers upon him. Moses makes no distinction 
between him and them ; for he styles them all living souls, breathing 
the breath of lives. Thus, literally rendered he says, " The Elohim 
said, the waters shall produce abundantly sheretz chayiah nephesh 
the reptile living soul ; " and again, " Kal nephesh chayiah erameshat 
every living soul creeping." In another verse, " Let the earth bring 
forth nephesh chayiah the living soul after its kind, cattle, and creej)- 
ing thing, and beast of the earth, &c.; " and '' Lekol rumesh ol earetz 
asher hu nephesh chayiah to every thing creeping upon the earth 
which (has) in it living breath,"'' that is, breath of lives. And lastty, 
" Whatsoever Adam called nephesh chayiah the living soul that was 
the name thereof."'^ 

Quadrupeds and men, however, are not only " living souls," but 
they are vivified by the same breath and spirit. In proof of this, I 
remark first, that the phrase " hreath of life " in the text of the com- 
mon version is neshemet chayim in the Hebrew ; and that, as chayim 
is in the plural, it should be rendered hreatli of lives. Secondly, this 
neshemet chayim is said to be in the inferior creatures as well as in 
man. Thus, God said, " I bring a flood of waters apon the earth to 
destroy all flesh wherein is ruach chayim spirit of lives."'' And 
in another place, " They went in to Noah into the ark, two and two of 
all flesh, in which is ruach chayim spirit of lives." '' And all flesh 
died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and 
of beast, and of every creeping thing, and every man ; all in 
whose nostrils was neshemet ruach chayim, breath of spirit of 
LIVES. "^ Now, as I have said, it was the neshemet chayim ^mih which 
Moses testifies God inflated the nostrils of Adam ; if, therefore, this 
were divina particida auroe, a particle of the divine essence, as it is 
affirmed, which became the " immortal soul " in man, then all other 
animals have " immortal souls " likewise ; for they aU received " breath 
of spirit of lives " in common w^ith man. 

« 1 Cor. XV. 44, 45. ^2 Cor. iii. 17, 18. " Gen. i. 20, 21, 24, 30. ^ Qen. ii. 19. 
e Gen. vi. 17. / Gen. vii. 15, 21. 



30 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

From these testimonies, I think, it must be obvious to the most 
"unlearned, that the argument for the existence of an "immortal soul" 
in " sinful flesh," hereditarily derived from the first sinner, predicated 
on the inspiration of his nostrils with " the breath of lives " by the 
Lord God, and the consequent application to him of the phrase " living 
soul," if admitted as good logic, proves too much, and therefore 
nothing to the purpose. For if man be proved to be immortal in this 
sense, and upon such premises as these, then all quadrupeds are 
similarly immortal ; which none, I suppose, bi\t believers in the 
transmigration of souls, would be disposed to admit. 

The original condition of the animal world was " very good.'" 
Unperverted by the introduction of evil, all its constituents fulfilled 
the purposes of their existence. Begotten of the same power, and 
formed from the substance of a common mother, they were all animated 
by the same spirit, and lived in peace and harmony together. Formed 
to be living breathing frames, though of different species, in God they 
lived, and moved, and had their continued being ; and displayed His 
wisdom, power, and handiwork. 

But, to return to the philology of our subject, T remark that by 
a metonomy, or figure of speech in which the container is put for the 
thing contained, and vice versa, nephesh " breathing frame " is jjut 
for neshemet ruach chayim, which, when in motion, the frame respires. 
Hence nephesh signifies " life," also " breath " and " soul " — Life, or 
those mutually affective, ]30sitive and negative principles in all living 
creatures, whose closed circuits cause motion of and in their frames. 
These principles, or qualities, perhaps, of the same thing, are styled by 
Moses Ruach Elohim,'^ or Spirit of Him " who only hath immortality, 
dwelhng in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man 
hath seen, nor can see,"^ and which, when the word was spoken by 
" the Holy Gods,"'' first caused a motion upon the waters, and after- 
wards disengaged the light, evolved the expanse, aggregated the waters, 
produced vegetation, manifested the celestial universe, vitalized the 
breathing frames of the dry land, expanse, and seas ; and formed man 
in their image and likeness. This ruach, or spirit, is neither the 
Uncreated One who dwells in light, the Lord God, nor the Eloliim, 
His co-workers, who co-operated in the elaboration of the natural world. 
It was the instrumental pinnciple by which they executed the commission 
of the glorious Increate to erect this earthly house, and furnish it with 
living soals of every species. 

It is this ruach, or instrumentally formative power, together with 
tlie neshemeh or breath, which keejDs them all from perishing, or 
returning to the dust. Thus, " If God set His heart against man. He 
will withdraw to himself ruachu veneshemetu, i.e., his spirit and his 
breath; all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again to 
dust."'^ In another place, " By the neshemet el, or breath of God, 
frost is given."" Speaking of reptiles and beasts^ David saith, 
** Thou withdrawest ruachem, i.e., their spirit — they die ; and to their 
dust they return. Thou sendest forth ruhech, i.e., thy spirit — they are 

" Gen. i. 2. ^1 Tim. vi. 16. « Dan. iv. 3. '^ Job xxxiv. 14. 
e Job xxxvii. 10. 



god's spirit and breath. 31 

created."" And again, " Whither shall I fly, meruJiech, from thy 
spirit."^ 

From these testimonies it is manifest, that the ruacli or spirit is all 
pervading. It is in heaven, in sheol, or the dust of the deepest hollow, 
in the uttermost depths of the sea, in the darkness, in the Hght, and 
in all things animate, and without life. It is an universal principle in 
the broadest, or rather, in an illimitable sense. It is the substratum 
of all motion, whether manifested in the diurnal and elhpsoidal revolu- 
tions of the planets, in the flux and reflux of the sea, in the storms 
and tempests of the expanse, or in the organism of reptiles, cattle, 
beasts, fish, fowls, vegetables, or men. The atmospheric expanse is 
charged with it ; but it is not the air : plants and animals of ah 
species breathe it ; but it is not their breath : yet without it, though 
filled with air, they would die. 

The atmosphere, which extends some forty-five miles in altitude, 
and encircles the globe, is styled the expanse, by Moses ; and the 
breath of God, in Job. It is a compound body, consisting when pure 
of nitrogen and oxygen, in the proportion of 79 of the former to 
21 of the latter, in 100 parts."---' These are considered as simple bodies, 
because they have not yet been decomposed ; though it is probable 
they have a base, which may be the ruack. This may exist free or 
combined with the elementary constituents of the neshemeh. Uncom- 
bined, it is that wonderful fluid, whose explosions are heard in the 
thunder, whose fiery bolts overthrow the loftiest towers, and rive the 
sturdy monarch of the woods ; and in less intensity gives polarity to 
light, the needle, and the brain. These three together, the oxygen, 
nitrogen, and electricity, constitute ''the hreath" and ''spirit'' of the 
lives of all God's hving souls. 

Thus, from the centre of the earth, and extending throughout all 
space in every direction, is the RuacJi Elohim, the existence of which 
is demonstrable from the phenomena of the natural system of things. 
It penetrates where the neshemet el, or atmospheric air, cannot. When 
speaking, however, of the motivity and sustentation of organized 
dust, or souls, they are co-existent within them. In this case, the 
ruaeh Elohim becomes the ruaeh ehayim, or " spirit of lives ; " and 
the neshemet el, the neshemet ehayim, or " breath of lives ; " and both 
combined in the elaboration and support of hfe, the neshemet ruaeh 
ehayim, or " breath of the spirit of lives." Living creatures, or 
souls, are not animated, as physiologists and speculative " divines " 
erroneously imagine, by " a vital prineiple,'' capable of disembodied 
existence as the ghost of a man, or the transmigrating spectres of other 
animal species ; — ghostly things, the laws and functions of which in 
the animal economy physiologists are unable to discover ; and 
theologists are non-plussed to prove the existence of from the word of 
God. On the contrary, " souls " are " made living " by the coetaneous 
operation of the ruaeh ehayim and the neshemet ehayim upon their 

« Psahn civ. 30. ^ Psaka cxxxix. 7. 

■® Since this was written argon has been discovered ; but all scientific research 
favotirs the hypothesis here laid do^va. — Publisher. 



32 RUDBIENTS OF THE WOULD. 

organized tissues according to certain fixed laws. When the as yet 
occult laws of the all-pervading ruach, or spirit, shall be known, this 
subject will be understood ; and men will then be as astonished at the 
ignorance of the " divines," and physiologists of this "cloudy and 
dark day," respecting " living souls," as we are at the notion of the 
ancients, that their " immortal gods " resided in the stocks and stones 
they so stupidly adored. This, however, is quite as reasonable a 
theory as that of "immortal souls" dwelling in sinners of Adam's 
race. 

The ruadi chayim and neshemet cliayim are lent to the creatures 
of the natural world for the appointed period of their living existence. 
But, though lent to them, they are still God's breath, and God's spirit ; 
nevertheless, to distinguish them from the expanse of air and spirit in 
their totality, they are sometimes styled, " the spirit of man," and " the 
spirit of the beast;" or collectively, "the spirits of all flesh," and 
"t/iei?" breath." Thus, it is written, "They have all one ruach, or 
spirit ; so that man hath no pre-eminence over a beast ; for all is vanity 
or vapour." " All go to one place ; all are of the dust, and all turn 
to dust again."" And in the sense of supplying to every living 
creature, or soul, " spirit " and "breath," Jehovah is styled b}^ Moses, 
" God of the spirits of all flesh.' '^ 

Besides the ruach and neshemeh without, there are certain 
elementary principles, in a state of combination, within all living souls, 
which are related to them by fixed and appropriate laws, for the 
manifestation of living actions. The light to the eye, and the eye to 
the light ; so also, the breath and the spirit of God to the constituents 
of blood, and the blood to them. These, acting and re-acting upon 
each other in the lungs of all breathing frames, cause that motion 
throughout their structure which is termed life. The following 
testimonies will throw some light upon this part of our subject. 

" Flesh, be-nephesh-u, with the life thereof, which is the blood 
thereof, shall ye not eat." This teaches that blood is the nephesh, or 
life of the flesh ; hence it continues, " and surely your blood, lah- 
nephesh-tikam, for your lives will I require."'' We often find life put 
for blood, and blood for life, as elsewhere in the context. " Be sure 
that thou eat not the blood, for the blood is the nephesh, or life ; and 
thou mayest not eat the life, nephesh, with the flesh. "'^ But, to this it 
might be objected, that if the blood be the life, then so long as it is in 
the body it ought to live ; on the contrary it dies with the blood in it. 
True. Moses, however, does not teach the dogma of an abstract vital 
principle ; but life, the result and consequence of the decomposition 
and re-combination of the elements of certain compounds. The blood 
abstractly considered is not life ; yet relatively, it is " the hfe of 
the flesh." The following testimony will show the sense in which 
the phrase " the blood is the life " is used. " I will set my face against 
that soul that eateth blood. For the life of the flesh is m the blood 
itself. I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for 
nephesh-tikem your lives : for it is the blood that atones be-nephesh for 
the soul " or life. " Whosoever catcheth any fowl that may be eaten, 

a Eccles. iii. 20. ''Nirnib. xxvii. 15. "Gen. ix. 11. <i Deut. xii. 23. 



MORT.VLITY AND LMM(.)RT.y.ITY. 33 

lie shall even pour out tlie blood tliereof, and cover it with dust. For it 
is the life of all flesh ; the blood of it is for the life thereof. Ye shall 
eat the blood of no manner of flesh ; for the life of all flesh is the 
blood thereof."" Xothing can be plainer than this. 

There are three kinds of living manifestations, which are charac- 
terized by the nature of the organization, or being, through which 
tiiey occur. Hence, we have vegetable life, animal life, and incor- 
raptihle life. Tlie last is immortality ; because the body through 
which the life is manifested being incorruptible, never wears out ; so 
that being once put into motion by the spirit of God, it lives for ever. 
Vegetable and animal life, on the contrary', is terminable or mortal ; 
because the materials through which it is revealed are perishably 
organized. Mortality, then, is life manifested through a corruptible 
body ; and immortality, life manifested through an incorruptible body. 
Hence, the necessity laid down in the saying of the apostle, " This 
corruptible body must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on 
immortality," before death can be ''" swallowed up in victory."^ This 
doctrine of " life and incorruptibility " (i^wr/ /cat a(pdap(ria) was new to 
the Greeks and Romans ; and brought to light only through the 
gospel of the kingdom and name of Jesus Christ. It was to them 
foolishness ; and is to the moderns incredible, because they understand 
not the glad tidings of the age to come. 

Incorruptible life might with equal propriety be styled spiritual 
life as indicative of that with which spiritual bodies are endowed. 
But here I rise not the word spiritual, lest it should be confounded 
with that intellectual and moral life a man possesses when the 
" incorruptible seed " of the kingdom takes root in his heart ; and 
when, in " the obedience of faith," he passes from imder the sentence 
of death to the sentence of justification unto life eternal. But, at 
present, we have to do with animal or natural life, which is all the life 
the fleshly sons of the first Adam can boast of. Enough, however, I 
think, has been advanced to show the scriptural import of the text 
already quoted, that " the Lord God formed man, the dust of the 
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives, and man 
became a living soul." 

The simple, obvious, and undogmatic meaning of this, is, that 
the dust was first formed into " clay,'' which was then modelled 
by Jehovah Elohim into the form of the soul called " man," as a 
potter shapes the. substance of his vessels. Thus, Elihu said to Job, 
*' I also am formed out of the clay ; "'^ and again, " We are the clay, 
and thou our potter ; and we all are the work of thy hand.""^ The 
fashioning of the clay being accomplished in all its component parts, 
which in the aggregate constitute man ; that is, the dust being ani- 
malized, and then organized, the next thing was to set all the parts of 
this exquisite mechanism into motion. This was effected by the in- 
rush of the air through his nostrils into his lungs according to the 
natural laws. This phenomenon was the neshemet el, or '' breath of 
God," breathing into him ; and as it was the pabulum o£ life to all 
creatures formed from the dust, it is very expressively styled " the 

« Lev. xvii. 11. ^ 1 Cor. xi. 53, 54. « Job xxxiii. 6„ '^ Isaiali Ixiv. 8. 



34 RUDTiAIENTS OF THE WORLD. 

breath of lives " in the plural number. Some imagine that Jehovah 
Elohim placed His mouth to the nostrils of tlie as yet clay-cold man- 
soul prostrate before Him, and so breathed into them. Be this as it 
may ; of this, however, we are without doubt, that God breathes into 
every man at his birth the breath of lives to this day ; and I see no 
scriptural reason why we should deny that He breathed it into Adam 
as He hath done into the nostrils of his posterity, namely, by the 
0]3eration of the natural, or pneumatic, laws. Hitherto, man, though 
a soul formed from the ground, had been inanimate ; but, as soon as 
he began to respire, like tlie embryo passing from foetal to infant life, 
he " became a living soul," not an everliving, but simply 7iep]iesh 
chayiah, a living breathing frame, or hody of life. 

MAN IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF THE ELOHIM. 
" Tliou liast made him a little lower than the angels." 

Men and beasts, say the scriptures, " have all one ruach or spirit ; 
so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast." The reason 
assigned for this equalit}^ is the oneness of their spirit, which is proved 
by the fact of their common destiny; as it is written, "for all are 
vanity : " that is, " all go unto one place ; all are of the dust, and all 
turn to dust again." Yet this one sjoirit manifests its tendencies 
differently in men and other creatures. In the former, it is aspiring 
and God-defying, rejoicing in its own works, and devoted to the vanity 
of the passing hour ; while in the latter, its disposition is grovelling to 
the earth in all things. Thus, the heart of man being " deceitful 
above all things and desperately wicked, who can know or fathom it " 
— Solomon was led to exclaim, " Who knoweth the spirit of the sons of 
Adam, ruaeh heni lieadam, which exalts itself to the highest, and the 
spirit of a beast which inclines to the earth ?"" We may answer, 
"None, but God only;" He knoweth what is in man, and needs not 
that any should testify of Him.'' 

But, from this testimony some one might infer that, as man was 
made only " a little lower than the angels," and yet has " no jDre- 
eminence over a beast," the beast also is but a little lower than the 
angels. This, however, would be a very erroneous conclusion. The 
equality of men and other animals consists in the kind of life they 
possess in common with each other. Vanity, or mortality, is all that 
pertains to any kind of living flesh. The whole animal world has 
been made subject to it ; and as it affects all living souls alike, bringing 
them back to the dust again, no one species can claim pre-eminence 
over the other ; for " one thing befalleth them ; as the one dieth, so 
dieth the other." 

Man, however, differs from other creatures in having been 
modelled after a divine type, or pattern. In form and capacity he was 
made like to the angels, though in nature inferior to them. This 
appears from the testimony that he was made " in their image, after 
their likeness," and " a little loioer than the angels,"'' or Elohim. I 
say, he was made in the image of the angels, as the interpretation of 

a Eccles. iii. 19-21. '' John ii. 25. c Psalm viii. 5. 



SETH THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF ADAM. 35 

the co-operative imperative, " Let us make man in ou7' image, after our 
likeness." The work of tiie six days, though elaborated by the power 
of Him " who dwelleth in the light," was executed by " his angels, 
that excel in strength, and do his commandments, hearkening unto the 
voice of his word."" These are styled Elohim, or " gods," in numerous 
passages. David says, "Worship him all ye gods ; ''^ which Paul 
applies to Jesus, saying,"-'- " Let all the angels of God worship him." " 
Man, then, was made after the image and likeness of Elohim, but for 
a while inferior in natiire. But the race will not always be inferior in 
this resj)ect. It is destined to advance to a higher nature ; not all the 
individuals of it ; but those of the race " who shall be accounted 
worthy to obtain that age (atwv fieWcov the future age) and the resur- 
rection from among the dead (e/c vekoCjv) '••'■ '•■ *•••' who can die no more : 
for they are equal to the angels ilaayyeXoi) ; and are the sons of God, 
being the sons of the resurrection."'^ 

The import of the phrase " in the image, after the likeness " is 
suggested by the testimony, that " x4dam begat a son in his own like- 
ness, after his image, and called his name Seth."'' In this respect, 
Beth stands related to Adam, as Adam did to the Elohim ; but differing 
in this, that the nature of Adam and Seth were identical ; whereas 
that of Adam and the Elohim were dissimilar. Would any one be 
at a loss to know the meaning of Seth's being in the image of his 
father ? The very same thing is meant by Adam being in the image 
of the Elohim. An image is the representation of some form or 
shape ; metaphorically, it ma}^ signify the exact resemblance of one 
character to another. But, in the case before us, the parties had no 
characters at the time of their birth. They were simply innocent of 
actual transgression ; no scope having been afforded them to develop 
character. The Elohim, however, were personages of dignity and 
holiness, as well as of incorruptible, or spiritual, nature. The resem- 
blance, therefore, of Adam to the Elohim as their image was of bodily 
form, not of intellectual and moral attainment ; and this I apprehend 
to be the reason why the Elohim are styled " men " when their visits 
to the sons of Adam are recorded in the scriptures of truth. In 
shape, Seth was like Adam, Adam like the Elohim, and the Elohim, 
the image of the invisible Increate ; the great and glorious archetype 
of the intelligent universe. 

Seth was also " in Adam's own likeness." While image, then, 
hath leference to form or shape, " likeness " hath regard to mental 
constitution, or capacity. From the shape of his head, as compared 
with other creatures, it is evident, that man has a mental capacity 
which distinguishes him above them all. Their likeness to him is 
faint. They can think ; but their thoughts are only sensual. They 
have no moral sentiments, or high intellectual aspirations ; but are 
grovelling in all their instincts, which incline only to the earth. In 
proportion as their heads assume the human form in the same ratio do 

a Psahn ciii. 20. ^ Psalm xcvii. 7. « Heb. i. 6. ^ Luke xx. 35, 36. ' Gen. v. 3. 
*■ Paul's qiLOtat'ion is verbatim from Deut. xxxii. 43. (LXX.) not Psa. xcvii. 



36 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

they excel each other in sagacity ; and, as in the monkey tribe, display 
a greater likeness to man. But, let the case be reversed ; let the 
linman head degenerate from the godlike perfection of the Elohim, the 
standard of beauty in shape and feature ; let it diverge to the image 
of an ape's, and the human animal no longer presents the image and 
likeness of the Elohim ; but rather, the chattering imbecility of the 
creature most resembling it in form. Adam's mental capacity enabled 
him to comprehend and receive spiritual ideas, which moved him to 
veneration, hope, conscientiousness, the expression of his views, 
affections, and so forth. Seth was capable of the like display of 
intellectual and moral phenomena ; and of an assimilation of character 
to that of his father. He w^as therefore in the likeness as well as in 
the image of Adam ; and, in the same sense, they were both " after 
the likeness of the Elohim." 

But, though Adam was " made in the image and after the likeness" 
of the " Holy Ones," the similitude has been so greatly marred, that 
his posterity present but a faint representation of either. The almost 
uncontrolled and continuous ojDeration of "the law of sin and 
death,"'' styled by philoso]3hers " the law of nature," which is an 
indwelling and inseparable constituent of our present economy, has 
exceedingly deformed the image, and effaced the likeness of God, which 
man originally presented. It required, therefore, the appearance of a 
Xew Man, in whom the image and likeness should re-appear, as in the 
beginning. This was " the man Christ Jesus," whom Paul styles '* the 
last Adam." He is " the Image of the invisible God "^' {eikoju tov 
Qeov) ; " the effulgent mirror of the glory, and exact likeness of his 
person "° (cnrauyaa/ia rrjg ^o^rjg, Kal yaoaKTijp tttq vTroaracreiOQ avTOv). 
Hence, in another place, Paul says, he was " in the form of 
God,"'^ {ev fiop^i] Qeov) and also " made in the likeness of men, and in 
the form of a man." Being thus the image and likeness of the invisible 
God, as well as of man, wdio was created in the image and likeness of 
th(3 Elohim, he made himself equal with God in claiming God for his 
father, ' though born of " sinful flesh." Though thus highly related 
in paternity, image, and character, he was yet " made a little lower 
than the angels ;" for he apjpeared not in the higher nature of Elohim, 
but in the inferior nature of the seed of Abraliam.j'' This was the 
first stage of his manifestation, as the present is of the saints who are 
his brethren. But he is the appointed " heir of all things, on account 
of whom " (hi ov), " the ages were re-arranged {icaTrjpriQBai rovg aiojyag) 
by the w^ord of God, so that the things seen exist not from things 
apparent."-'' But, says the apostle, "we do not yet see all things put 
under him : but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the 
angels for the sufering of death, crowned with glory and honour ; 
that by the grace of Gocl he should taste death for every man.'' Having 
been thus laid low, and for this gracious purpose, he is no longer 
" lower than the angels." He is equal to them in body ; and made so 
much superior to them in rank, dignity, honour, and glory, " as he 
hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they."' 

« Rom. vii. 23. h Col. i. ]5. '• Heb. i. 3. -'i Phil, ii, 6, 7, 8. « John v. ]8. 
/Heb. ii. IC. 'J Heb. i. 2 ; xi. 3. '^ Heb. ii. 8, 9. -»Heb. i. 4. 



JESUS THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD. 37 

In Jesus, then, raised from the dead incorruptible, and clothed 
with brightness as when he was transfigured upon the Holy Mount,'' we 
behold the image and likeness of the invisible God. When we contem- 
plate him by faith, as we shall hereafter by sight, we see A mirror 
from which the glory of Jehovah is reflected in intellectual, moral, and 
physical grandeur. He that would know God, must behold Him in 
Christ. If he be acquainted with Him as He is poartrayed in the 
prophets and apostles, he will understand the character of God, whom 
no man hath seen, nor can see ; who chargeth his angels with folly, and 
before whom the heavens are not clean. Jesus was the true light 
shining in the darkness of Judea, whose inhabitants " comprehended 
it not." Through him, God, who commanded the light to shine out of 
darkness, shone into the hearts of as many as received him, to give 
them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of 
Jesus Christ ; that so they might receive power to become the sons of 
God, believing on his name.^ 

How consoling and cheering is it, then, amid all the evils of the 
present state, that God hath found a ransom, who is willing and able 
to deliver us from the power of the grave ; and not only so, but that 
"at the manifestation of the sons of God,"'' when he shall appear in 
power and great glory, ''ice shall he like him ; because we shall see 
him as he is. "'^ Then will the saints be " changed into the same image 
from glory," now only a matter of hope, " into glory," as seen and 
actually possessed, " even as the Lord " himself was changed, when he 
became " the spirit giving life," or " a quickening spirit." 

THE SPIRITUAL BODY. 

" There is a spiritual body." 

The subject of this section is the second member of the apostle's 
proposition, that " there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual 
body." It is contained in his reply to some of the Corinthian disciples, 
who, to their shame, had not the knowledge of God, and therefore 
foolishly inquired, " How are the dead raised up ? and with ichat hody 
do they come?" He showed them that the animal hody had a 
similar relation to the spiritual hody that naked grain has to the 
plant produced from it according to the law of its reproduction. 
He explained, that before a plant could be reproduced from a seed, 
the seed must be put into the soil, and die, or decay away. By the 
time the plant is established, all vestige of the seed is gone from the 
root ; yet, the identity of the seed w^ith the -plant is not lost, inasmuch 
as the same kind of seed re-appears in the fruit of the plant. The 
plant is the secondary body of the seed-body, which is the first. There 
are different kinds of vegetable seed-bodies ; and also of animal seed- 
bodies. These classes of seeds are terrestrial bodies, and have their 
glory in the bodies produced from them. But there are also celestial 
bodies, whose glory is of a different character. It is light blazing and 

« Matt. xvii. 2. & 2 Cor. iii. 18 : iv. 6 ; Jolia i. 5, 12. c Rom. viii. 17-25. 

'^ 1 John iii. 2. 



38 EUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

sparkling in tlie vault of heaven, as may be seen by every eye. Such 
is the apostle's illustration of the resurrection of the dead ; or, of how 
they are raised, and for what kind of body they spring forth. " So 
also," says he, " is the resurrection of the dead." We are in this state 
as the naked grain. We die and are buried, and go to corruption ; 
leaving only our characters behind us written in the book of God. 
When decayed, a little dust alone remains, as the nacleus of our 
future selves. When the time comes for the righteous dead to rise, 
then " He that raised up Christ from the dead will also make alive 
their mortal bodies by his spirit," operating through Jesus uj^on their 
dust, and fashioning it into the image of the Lord from heaven.'' Thus, 
as the Elohim made man out of the dust in their own image and like- 
ness ; so, the Lord Jesus, by the same spirit, will also re-fashion from 
the dust, the righteous of the posterity of the first Adam, into his 
own image and likeness. This is wonderful, that by a man should come 
the resurrection of the dead.'' Truly may he be called the " Wonder- 
ful."'' Once a babe fondled at the breast, and hereafter the creator 
of myriads, now only dust and ashes, but then equal to the angels of 
God ; and " sons of the resurrection," of which he is himself '' the 
First Fruits." 

Having shown " how," or upon what principles, the righteous 
dead are raised, the apostle gives us to understand, that their '' glory " 
will consist in brightness ; for he cites the splendour of the celestial 
bodies as illustrative of their's. This reminds us of the testimony in 
Daniel, that " They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the 
firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for 
ever and ever."'' This is repeated by the Lord Jesus, who says, " Then 
shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom, of their 
Father; "^ which assurance Paul also revives in his letter to the saints 
at PhilipjDi) saying, " Our commonwealth {j]}iCjv to ttoXltevjxcl) has a 
beginning-^ {virap^ei) in the heavens, (ev ovpayoig) out of which also we 
wait for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ : who will transfigure the 
body of our humiliation, that it may become of like form with the 
body of his glory, by the power of that which enables him even to 
subdue all things to himself."^ 

When we die we are buried, or " sown," like so many seeds in 
the earth. We are sown, says the apostle, "in corruption," "in dis- 
honour," " in weakness," and with an animal nature ; but, when we 
are raised to inherit the kingdom, we become incorruptible, glorious, 
powerful, and possessed of a spiritual nature, such as Jesus and the 
Elohim rejoice in. Now, a spiritual body is as material, or substantial 
and tangible, a body as that which we now possess. It is a body 
purified from " the law of sin and death." Hence it is termed 
" holy," and " spiritual," because it is born of the sj^irit from the 
dust, is incorruptible, and sustained by the ruach, or spirit, independ- 
ently of the neshemeli, or atmospheric air. " That which is born of 
the flesh," in the ordinary way, " is flesh," or an animal body : and 
" that which is born of the spirit," b}^ a resurrection to life, " is spirit,'^ 

, « Rom. viii. 11 ; 2 Cor. iv. 14. ^ 1 Cor. xv. 21. " Isaiah ix. 6. '^ Dan. xii. 3. 
eMatt. xiii. 43. /Dan. ii. 44; Luke xix. 12, 15. <J Phil. iii. 20, 21. 



THE SPJRITUAT. BODY. 39 

or a spiritual body.'^ Hence, in speaking of Jesus, Paul says, " born 
of David's seed according to tke flesli ; and constituted the son of 
God in jDOwer, according to the spirit of holiness, through the resur- 
rection from the dead."^ Thus, he was born of the spirit, and there- 
fore became "' a spirit ; " and, because highly exalted, and possessing 
a name which is above every name,'"- he is styled '' the Lord the Spirit." 

That the spiritual body is independent of atmospheric air for its 
support, is clear from the ascension of the Lord Jesus. An animal 
body can only exist in water, or in atmospheric air, and at a compara- 
tively low altitude above the surface o£ the earth. Now, the air does 
not extend beyond forty-five miles ; consequent!}^ beyond that limit, if 
they could even attain to it, creatures supported by breath in the nos- 
trils, could no more live than fish in the air. Beyond our atmosphere 
is the ether ; through which they only can pass, who, like the Lord 
Jesus and the angels, possess a nature adapted to it. This is the case 
with the spiritual nature. Jesus was changed elg -vevuia into a spirit, 
and was therefore enabled to j^ass through it to the ri^-ht hand of the 
Majest}^ in the heavens, Enoch, Elijah, and Moses, are also cases to 
the point. 

The spiritual body is constituted of flesh and bones vitalized by the 
spirit. This appears from the testimony concerning Jesus. On a cer- 
tain occasion, he unexpectedly stood in the midst of his disciples, at 
which they were exceedingly alarmed, supposing they beheld a spirit, 
or phantasm, as at a former time. But, that they might be assured 
that it was really he himself, he invited them to handle him, and exa- 
mine his hands and feet : " For," said he, " a spirit hath not flesh and 
bones as ye see me have." Incredulous for joy, he gave them further 
proof by eating a piece of broiled fish and of a hone^^comb.'^ Thomas 
thrust his hand into his side, and was convinced that he was the same 
who had been crucified.'' What stronger proof can we need of the 
substantial and tangible nature of the spiritual body ? It is the animal 
body purified, not evaporated into gas, or vapour. It is a bloodless 
body ; for in the case of Jesus he had poured out his blood upon the 
cross. The life of the animal body is in the blood ; but not so that of 
the spirit aal body : the life of this resides in that mighty power which 
suspends '' the earth upon nothing," and is diffused through the 
immensity of space. 

When the Lord Jesus said, " A spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye 
see me have," he did not mean to say that a spiritual body had not ; 
but a spirit such as they thought they saw. " They supposed they had 
seen a spirit." In the received reading the same word, iTvev}xa, is used 
here as in the text which speaks of Jesus as " the Lord the Spirit ; " 
but evidently, not in the same sense. Indeed, the reading in Gries- 
bach's edition of the original text is clearly the correct one. The word 
rendered spirit is properly (pavraa/j-a, a phantom or mere optical illu- 
sion ; and not Trvevfxa, spirit.'--' When Jesus walked ujoon the sea both 

« John iii. 6. ^ Rom. i. 3, 4. « Phil. ii. 9-11. ^Liike xxiv. 36-43. « John xx. 27. 

"■■■■ The R.V. retains pneuma, spirit ; but in Matthew and Mark renders 
phantasma, apparition. 



40 RUDDJEXTS OF THE WORLD. 

Matthew" and Mark^ make use of the same phrase as Luke, and say 
that the disciples when they saw him, " sujDposed they had seen a 
spirit, and they cried out for fear." In both these places the word is 
phantasma, and not pneuvia. 

Having affirmed that man stands related to two kinds of body, the 
apostle gives us to understand, that in the arrangements of God the 
si3iritual system of things is elaborated out of the animal, and not the 
animal out of the spiritual. The natural world is the raw material, as 
it were, of the spiritual ; the bricks and mortar, so to speak, of the 
mansion which is to endure for ever. In relation to human nature, 
two men are presented as its types in the two phases it is to assume. 
These Paul styles " the First Adam," and " the Last Adam," or 
"the first man," and "the second man." The former, he terms 
" earthly " ; because he came from the ground, and goes thither again : 
and, the latter, " the Lord from heaven " ; because, being " known 
no more after the flesh," he is expected from heaven as the place of 
his final manifestation in " the body of his glory." Then, says John, 
" loe shall he like him.'' If, therefore, we have been successful in 
depicting the Lord as he is now, while seated at the right hand of 
God ; namely, an incorruptible, honourable, powerful, living person, 
substantial and tangible, shining as the sun, and able to eat and drink, 
and to display all mental and other phenomena in perfection : if the 
reader be able to comprehend such an " Image of the invisible God," 
he can understand what they are to be, who are accounted worthy to 
inherit His kingdom. Therefore, says Paul, " As w^e have borne the 
image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly,"" or, 
Lord from heaven. 

This corporeal change of those, who have first been morally 
" renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that hath created 
them "'^ from " sinful flesh " into spirit, is an absolute necessity, before 
they can inherit the Kingdom of God. When we come to understand 
the nature of this Kingdom, which has to be exhibited in these pages, 
w^e shall see that it is a necessity which cannot be dispensed with. 
" That which is corruptible cannot inherit incorruptibility," says the 
apostle. This is the reason why animal men must die, or be trans- 
formed. Our animal nature is corrujjtible ; but the Kingdom of God 
is indestructible, as the prophet testifies, saying, " It shall never be 
destroyed, nor left to other people ; but shall stand for ever."^ Because, 
therefore, of the nature of this Kingdom, " flesh and blood cannot 
inherit it " ; and hence the necessity of a man being " born of the 
spirit," or " he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God."-'^^ He must be 
" changed into spirit," put on incorruptibility and immortality of body, 
or he will be physically incapable of retaining tlie honour, glory, and 
power of the Kingdom for ever, or even for a thousand years. 

But, before the apostle concludes his interesting exposition of 
"the kind of body for which the dead come," he makes known a secret 
which was previously concealed from the disciples at Corinth. It 
would probably have occurred to them, that, if flesh and blood could 

«Matt. xiv. 26. h A:ai-k vi. 49. <• L Cor. xv." 40. '' Col. iii. 10. '' Dan. ii. 44. 
/ John iii. 5-() ; 1 Cor. xv. 50. 



APOSTOLIC REVELATIO^^ AND COMFORT. 41 

not inherit the Kingdom of God, then those who were hving at the 
epoch of its estabhshment, being men in the flesh, could have no part 
in it. But to remove this difficulty, the apostle wrote, saying, " Be- 
hold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep (Kotfjirjdrja-oiJieda met. 
to die, be dead), but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the 
twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet ; for it (the seventh trumpet) " 
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible (tcrayyeXoi equal 
to the ano;els),^ and we shall be changed (etc -KVEvjxa, into spirit).'' For 
this corruptible (body) must put on incorruptibility {a<pQap(nav), and 
this mortal (body) must put on immortality {aBavamav). Then shall 
be brought to pass the saying that is written, " Death is swallowed up 
in victor3\"^ 

But, that the saints might not misapprehend the matter, especially 
those of them who may be contemporary with the seventh trmnpet- 
period, he gave further particulars of the secret in another letter. The 
disciples at Thessalonica were deeply sorrowing for the loss of some- 
of their body who had fallen asleep in death ; probably victims to- 
persecution. The apostle wrote to comfort them, and exhorted them 
"not to sorrow as the others {ol Xoiwoi i.e., the unbelievers), who have 
no hope. For if loe (the disciples) believe that Jesus died and rose 
again ;" and be not like those, who, by saying, " There is no resur- 
rection of the dead," in effect deny it ; " even so," as he rose, " them 
also who sleep in Jesus will G-od bring forth (aEei, lead out, or produce), 
with him. "^ He then proceeds to show the '' order ""^ in which the 
saints are changed into spirit, or immortalized, by the Son of 
Man.^ " For," says he, " this we say unto you by the word of the 
Lord, that we, the living, who remain at the Lord's coming, shall not 
anticijDate them who are asleep. For the Lord himself shall come 
down from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and 
with the trumpet of God : and tlie dead in Christ shall rise first : 
after that we, the living, who remain, shall be snatched away together 
with them in clouds to a meeting of the Lord in tiie air : and thus we 
shall be with the Lord at all times. Wherefore comfort one anotlier 
with these words."'' 

It will be seen from this, tliat survivors of the dead were not 
consoled in the first age of Christianity for the loss of their friends, as 
the}'' are now by those who " improve the death " of the influential 
among them. In " funeral sermons," the " immortal souls " of the 
deceased are transported " on angels' wings to heaven," and the living 
are consoled with the assurance, that they are singing the praises of 
God around the throne ; feasting with Abraham, and the prophets, 
with the saints and martyrs, and with Jesus and his apostles in the 
Kingdoui of God ; and the}^ are themselves persuaded, that the soids 
of their relations, now become angels, are watching over them, and 
jDraying for them ; and that when they die their own souls will be 
re-united with them in the realms of bliss. Need I say to the man 
enlightened in the word, that there is no such comfort, or consolation, 
as this in the law and the testimony of God ? Such traditions are 

« Rev. xi. 15, 18 : xv. 8 : xx. 4. '' Lnke xx. 30. c i Cor. xv. 45. '^ Isaiah xxv. 8. 
« 2 Cor. iv. 14. / 1 Cor. xv. 23. 9 John v. 21, 25, 26, 2S, 29. '^ 1 Thess. iv. 13-18. 



42 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

purely mythological ; and come of the Nicolaitan dogma of saved 
" ghosts ; and goblins damn'd," which has cancerously extirpated 
" the truth as it is in Jesus." No, the apostles did not point men to 
the day of their death, and its immediate consequents, for comfort ; 
nor did they administer the consolations of the gosjoel to any who had 
not obeyed it. They offered comfort only to the disciples ; for they 
only are the heirs with Jesus of the Kingdom of God. They taught 
these to look to the coming of Christ, and to the resurrection, as the 
time of a re-union with their brethren in the faith. At death, they 
should " rest from their labours, and their works should follow 
them ; " and " to them that look for Him shall he appear the second 
time without sin unto salvation."" Such were the practical, and intel- 
ligible " words," with which the apostles comforted their brethren ; 
but words which have become sealed and cabalistic, both to the 
unlearned and " the wise." 

In conclusion, then, as far as power is concerned, God could have 
created all things upon a spiritual or incorruptible basis at once. The 
globe could have been filled with men and women, equal to the angels 
in nature, power, and intellect, on the sixth day ; but the world would 
have been without a history, and its population characterless. This, 
however, would not have been according to the plan. The animal 
must precede the spiritual as the acorn goes before the oak. This will 
explain many difhciilties which are created by systems ; and which 
will for ever remain inexplicable upon the hypotheses they inv ent. 
The Bible has to do with things, not imaginations ; with bodies, not 
phantasmata ; with " living souls " of every species ; with corporeal 
beings of other worlds ; and with incorruptible and undying men : 
but it is as mute as death, and silent as the grave, having nothing at 
all to say about such "souls " as men pretend to "cure; " excapt to 
repudiate them as a part of that " philosophy and' vain deceit,"^ " which 
some 23rofessing have erred concerning the faith."" 

THE FORMATION OF WOMAN. 
" The woman was of the man." 

Adam, having been formed in the image, after the likeness of the 
Elohim on the sixth day, remained for a short time alone in the midst 
of the earthborns of the field. He had no companion who could 
reciprocate his intelligence ; none who could minister to his wants, 
or rejoice with him in the delights of creation ; and reflect the glory 
of his nature. The Elohim are a society, rejoicing in the love and 
attachment of one another ; and Adam, being like them though of 
inferior nature, required an object, which should be calculated to 
evoke the latent resemblances of his similitude to theirs. It was no 
better for man to be alone than for them. Formed in their image, 
he had social feelings as well as intellectual and moral faculties, which 
required. scope for their j^ractical and harmonious exercise. A purely 
intellectual and abstractly moral society, unattempered by domesti- 
cism, is an imperfect state. It may be very enlightened, very dignified 

« Heb. ix. 28. ?>Ool. ii. 8. -^ 1 Thn. vi. 21. 



THE FORMATION OF WOMAN. 43 

and immaculate ; bat it would also be very formal, and frigid as the 
poles. A being might know all things, and he might scrupulously 
observe the divine law from a sense of duty ; but something more is 
requisite to make him amiable, and beloved by either God or his 
fellows. This amiability the social feelings enable him to develop ; 
which, however, if unfurnished with a proper object, or wholesome 
excitation, react upon him unfavourably, and make him disagreeable. 
Well aware of this, Yahweh Elohim said, "It is not good that the man 
should be alone. I will make him a help fit for him."'^ 

But previous to the formation of this helj^, God caused " every 
living soul" (kol nephesh cJiayiah) to pass in review before Adam, that 
he might name them. He saw that each one had its mate ; "but for 
him there was not found a suitable companion." It was necessary, 
therefore, to form one, the last and fairest of his handiworks The 
Lord had created man in His own" image and glory " ; but He had 
yet to su.bdivide him into two ; a negative and a positive division ; an 
active and a passive half ; male and female, yet one flesh. The 
negatives, or females, of all other species of animals, were formed out 
of the ground ;^ and not out of the sides of their positive mates : so 
that the lion could not say of the lioness, " This is bone of my bone, 
and flesh of my flesh ; therefore shall a lion leave his sire and dam, 
and cleave unto the same lioness for ever." The inferior creatures are 
under no such law as this ; as primaries, indeed, the earth is their 
common mother, and the Lord, the " God of all their spirits." They 
have no second selves ; the sexes in the beginning were from the 
ground direct ; the female was not of the male, though the male is by 
her : therefore, there is no natural basis for a social, or domestic, law 
to them. 

But, in the formation of a companion for the first man, the Lord 
Elohim created her upon a different principle. She was to be a 
dependent creature ; and a S3mipathy was to be established between 
them, by which they should be attached inseparably. It would not 
have been fit, therefore, to have given her an independent origin from 
the dust of the ground. Had this been the case, there would have 
been about the same kind of attachment between men and women as 
subsists among the creatures below them. The woman's comjoanion- 
ship was designed to be intellectually and morally sympathetic with 
" the image and glory of God," whom she was to revere as her superior. 
The sympathy of the mutually independent earth borns of the field, 
is purely sensual ; and in projDortion as generations of mankind lose 
their intellectual and moral likeness to the Elohim, and fall under the 
dominion of sensuality ; so the s3UTipathy between men and women 
evaporates into mere animalism. But, I say, such a degenerate result 
as this, was not the end of her formation. She was not simjoly to be 
" the mother of all living " ; but to reflect the glory of man as he 
reflected the glory of God. 

To give being to such a creature, it was necessary she should be 
formed out of man. This necessity is found in the law which pervades 
the flesh. If the feeblest member of the body suffer, all the other 

a Gen. ii. 18. ^ verse 19. 



44 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

members suffer with, it ; that is, pain even in the little finger will 
produce distress throughout the system. Bone sympathises with bone, 
and flesh with flesh, in all joleasurable, healthful, and painful feehngs. 
Hence, to separate a portion of Adam's living substance, and from it to 
build a woman, would be to transfer to her the sympathies of Adam's 
nature ; and though by her organization, able to maintain an indepen- 
dent existence, she would never lose from her nature a sympathy with 
his, in all its intellectual, moral, and physical manifestations. Accord- 
ing to this natural law, then, the Lord Elohim made woman in the 
likeness of the man, out of his substance. He might have formed her 
from his body before he became a living soul ; but this would have 
defeated the law of sympathy ; for in inanimate matter there is no 
mental sympathy. She must, therefore, be formed from the living 
bone and flesh of the man. To do this was to inflict pain ; for to cut 
out a portion of flesh would have created the same sensations in Adam 
as in any of his posterity. To avoid such an infliction, " the Lord 
God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept." While 
thus unconscious of what was doing, and perfectly insensible to all 
corporeal impressions, the Lord " took out one of his ribs, and then 
closed up the flesh in its place." This was a delicate operation ; and 
consisted in separating the rib from the breast bone and spine. But 
nothing is too difficult for God. The most wonderful part of the w^ork 
had yet to be performed. The quivering rib, with its nerves and 
vessels, had to be increased in magnitude, and formed into a human 
figure, capable of reflecting the glory of the man. This was soon 
accomplished; for, on the sixth day, "male and female created he 
them:" and "the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, he 
made a woman, and brought her nnto the man." And " God blessed 
them, and said unto them. Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish (fill 
again) the earth, and subdue it : and have dominion ov^er the fish of 
the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that 
creepeth upon the earth." 

Believing this portion of the testimony of God, need our faith be 
staggered at the resurrection of the body from the little dust that 
remains after its entire reduction ? Surely, the Lord Jesus Christ by 
the same power that formed woman from a rib, and that increased a 
few loaves and fishes to twelve baskets of fragments after five thousand 
were fed and satisfied, can create multitudes of immortal men from a 
few pro])ortions of their former selves : and as capable of resuming 
their individual identity, as was Adam's rib of reflecting his mental 
and physical similitude. It is blind unbelief alone that requires the 
continuance of some sort of existence to preserve the identity of tlie 
resurrected man ^vith his former self. Faith confides in the ability of 
God to do what He has promised, although the believer has not the 
knowledge of how He is to accomplish it. Believing the wonders of 
the past, " he staggers not at the promise of God through unbelief ; 
but is strong in faith, giving glory to God.""^ 

The testimony of Moses in regard to the formation of woman, 
brings to light a very interesting phenomenon, which has since been 

" Rom. iv. 20. 



INfARRTAGE IN EDEN. 45 

amply proved to be tlie result of a natural law. It is, that man maij 
he made insensible to fain hy being placed in a deep sleep. The Lord 
Eloliim availed Himself of this law, and subjected the man He had 
made to its operation ; and man, because he is in His likeness, is also 
able to influence his fellow-man in the same way. The art of apply- 
ing the law is called by various names, and may be practised variously. 
The name does not alter the thing. A man's rib might be extracted 
now v^ith as little inconvenience as Adam experienced, hy thro^ving 
him into a deep sleep, which in numerons cases may be easily effected; 
but there our imitative ability ceases. We could not build up a woman 
from the rib. Greater wonders, however, than this w^ill man do here- 
after ; for by " the Man Christ Jesus " will his Bride be created from 
the dust, in his own image after his own likeness, " to the glory of 
God, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." 

When the Lord God presented the newly formed creature to her 
j)arent flesh, Adam said, " This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of 
my flesh ; she shall be called Isliali (or Outman), because she was 
taken out of Ish, or man. Therefore shall a man leave his father 
and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife ; and they shall be one 
flesh."" Thus, Adam pronounced upon himself the sentence that 
w^as to bind them together for weal or woe, until death should dissolve 
the union, and set them free for ever. This was marriage. It was 
based upon the great fact of her. formation out of man ; and consisted 
in Adam taking her to himself with her unconstrained consent. There 
w^as no religious ceremonial to sanctify the institution ; for the Lord 
himself even abstained from pronouncing the union. Xo human 
ceremony can make marriage more holy than it is in the nature 
of things. Superstition has made it " a sacrament," and incon- 
sistently enough, denied it, though " a lioly sacrament," to the very 
priests she has appointed to administer it. But priests and super- 
stition have no right to meddle with the matter ; they only disturb 
the harmony, and destroy the beauty, of God's arrangements. A 
declaration in the presence of the Lord Elohim, and the consent 
of the woman, before religion was instituted, is the only ceremonial 
recorded in the case. This, I believe, is the order of things among 
" the friends," or nearly so ; and, if all their peculiarities were as 
scriptural as this, there would be but little cause of complaint against 
them. 

"Man," says the apostle, "is the image and glor}- of God; but 
the woman is the glorv of the man ; " and the reason he assigns is, 
because " The man is not of the woman ; but tlie woman of the man. 
Neither was the man created for the woman ; but the woman for the 
nian."^ She was not formed in the image of man, though she may 
have been in the image of some of the Elohim. " Man " is generic 
of both sexes. When, therefore, Elohim said, " I;et us make man in 
our image ; " and it is added, "male and female created he them,'' it 
would seem that both the man and the woman were created in the 
image and likeness of Elohim. In this case, some of the Elohim 
are represented by Adam's form, and some by Eve's. I see no reason 

« Gen. ii. 21-24. ^ 1 Cor. xi. 7-9. 



46 RUDIMENTS OF THE WOULD. 

why it shoiild not be so. When mankind rises from the dead, they 
will donbtless become immortal men and women ; and then, says 
Jesas, "they are equal to the angels ;" on an equality with them in 
every respect. Adam only was in the image of Him that created him ; 
but then, the Elohim that do the commandments of the invisible God, 
are the virile portion of their community : Eve was not in their image. 
Their's was restricted to Adam ; nevertheless, she was after the image 
and likeness of some of those comprehended in the pronoun " our.'' 
Be this as it may, though not in the image, she was in the likeness of 
Adam ; and both " very good " according to the subangelic nature 
they possessed. 

A GREAT MYSTERY. 

" We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." 

In writing to the disciples at Ephesus, the apostle illustrates the 
submission due from wives to their husbands by the obedience rendered 
to Christ by the community of the faithful in his day. " As the 
church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands 
in every thing." This was an injunction of absolute submission to 
their Christian husbands as unto the Lord himself ; because " the 
husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the 
church." But, while he enjoins this unqualified obedience, he exhorts 
their husbands to return them due benevolence, not to treat them with 
bitterness, but to love them " even as Christ loved the church, and 
gave himself up for it.'' If unbelieving wives, however, were 
disobedient and perverse, and chose to depart, " let them ; a brother is 
not under bondage in such cases."" The love which should subsist 
between Christian brethren and sisters in the married state, is such as 
Christ manifested for the church by anticipation. " While loe were 
yet sinners Christ died for us," says the apostle.^ This is the greatest 
love a man can possibly show, that he should die for his enemies ; and 
this is the kind of love which Paul commends to the attention of the 
Ephesians ; though always on the supposition, that the wives " adorn 
the hidden man of the heart with that which is incorruptible, even a 
meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 
For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who 
trusted in God, adorued themselves, being in subjection to their own 
husbands : even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord : whose 
daughters such women are, as long as they do loell, and are not dis- 
mayed at any threat."" 

As he had introduced the subject of matrimonial love and obedi- 
ence, and had adduced the love of Christ for them all as his church, 
by way of illustration ; he proceeds to show the object for which he 
loved them even unto death ; the relationship which was consequently 
established between them ; and the sacrifice which they ought cheer- 
fully to make for him, who had loved them so devotedly. His object 
in giving himself for the church before it was formed, was that those 
who should afterwards compose it " might be sanctified and cleansed 

a 1 Cor. vii. 15. ^ Rom. v.' 6, 8. " 1 Peter iii. 3-6. 



THE WORD, FAITH, AND BAPTISil. 4T 

in the laver of the ivater [ro) Xovrpip rov vlaroo) hy the icord [kv prf/xari,)- 
that," at the resurrection, "he might present it to himself a glorious 
church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but holy and 
without blemish." " Ye are clean," said Jesus to his disciples, 
" through the loord which I have spoken to you."'* This word, which 
is defined to be " the law and the testimony,"^ is the great instrument, 
of holiness and purification. It changes men's minds ; loosens their 
attachment to earthly things ; causes them to place their affection on 
things above ; creates a new and right spirit within them ; diffuses 
the love of God abroad in their hearts ; separates them from sinners ; 
leads them into Christ ; and develops in their lives, fruit characteristic, 
of that repentance which needs not to be repented of. The Lord 
Jesus styles it, " the word of the kingdom ; "" and Peter, the incor- 
ruptible seed \'^ and Paul, "the word of the truth of the gospel ;"^ and 
John, " God's seed ;"^ and by James it is termed, " the word of 
truth,"» with which the invariable and unvacillating Father of lights 
begets His children, that they should be "a kind of first fruits of his 
creatures." It is by this word that an individual is renewed or 
renovated ; so as, in an intellectual and moral sense, to become a 
"new man;" as appears from what the apostle says to the brethren 
at Colosse : " Ye have put on the new man, which is veneioed unto- 
knoioledge'' after the image of him that created him." This renewing 
affects the spirit of the mind,' which may be known to be renovated, 
by a man having turned from his natural subserviency to " the lust 
of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life," to " righteousness 
and true holiness." When the mental disposition, called " the heart," 
is renewed, it becomes a mirror, as it were, in which one skilled in 
the word of the kingdom, can discern the spirit, or behold a reflection 
of the Divine Nature. This image of God in a man's character can 
only be created by the word of the truth of the gospel of the 
kingdom. A man may be very " pious " according to the standard of 
piety set up and approved by his fellow-men; but, if he be ignorant 
of the renewing elements, — if he neither know nor understand, and 
consequent^, and necessarily, be faithless of the law and testimony of 
God, " there is no light in him." He is walking in a vain show ; 
" in the vanity of his mind, having his understanding darkened, being 
alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in him, 
because of the blindness of his heart."-' The law and the testimony 
are styled by Peter, "God's knowledge;" " whereby are given unto 
us exceeding great and 'precious iDromises : that by these," i.e., by 
the understanding and belief of these, "j^e might be partakers of the 
Divine Nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world 
through lust."'' Now, the " testimony of God " came by the Holy 
Spirit, by which God testified in His prophets ;^ and, in the last da^^s, 
spoke through His Son'"' and the apostles." Hence, the effects of 
the word believed are attributed to the spirit ; and because the word 

a John XV. 3. & Isaiali viii. 20. <■ Matt. xiii. 19. ^ 1 Peter i. 23. '' Col. i. 5. 

/ IJohn iii. 9. ;; James i. 18. '^ Col. iii. 10. ^ Eph. iv. 23, 24. i verse 18. 

'^ 2 Peter i. 2-4. ^ Neh. ix. 30. "^Heb. i. 1, 2 ; John iii. 34 : v. 47 : vi. 63 : vii. 16 : 

xii. 48, 49. "Matt. x. 19, 20. 



48 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

sets men to breatliiug in God's moral atmosphere, it is termed " sj^irit 
and life." These remarks will explain the saying of tlie ajDostle to 
Titus, " According to his mercy God saved us through the laver of 
regeneration, and reneioal of the Holy Spirit.'""' This is parallel 
to the saying, " Sanctified and cleansed in the laver of the vs^ater hy 
the iDord ; " for the reader must not supjDOse, that any man, woman, or 
child, who is ignorant of the word, can be regenerated, or born again, 
by being plunged into a bath. The Holy Spirit does not renew 
the heart of man as he renews the mortal body, when through Jesus 
he raises it from the dead. In this case, the power is purely ph3'-sical. 
But, when the heart is the subject of renewal, it is b}^ the knowledge 
of the w^ritten testimony of God, or the word. " God," says Peter, 
speaking of the Gentile believers, " purified their hearts by faith ; "^ and 
Paul prays, " That Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith."'' ' Now, 
faith comes by hearing the word of God ;'^ in other words, it is the 
belief of God's testimony concerning things to come, which are not 
seen f and without which, it is impossible to please Him.^ When a 
man is renewed by the truth, he is renewed by the spirit, and not 
before. There is no such thing in the scriptures as a renewed igno- 
rant man. Ignorance of the testimony of God, and regeneration, 
are utterly incompatible. The truth is the purifier to those only who 
understand and obey it ;•/ and there is no moral purity, or sanctifica- 
tion of spirit before God, without it. It is only believers of the truth, 
then, who can be the subjects of a regeneration by being submerged 
" in the laver of the water." When they come out of this, they hav^e 
been "washed, sanctified, and justified in tlie name of the Lord Jesus, 
by the spirit of God."'*^ 

The truth to be believed is the gospel of the kingdom and name of: 
Jesus Christ.' When this is understood, and heartily received, it 
produces a disposition of mind, such as was in Abraham and Jesus, 
and which is called repentance. Believers, so disposed, are the 
begotten of God, and have become as little children. They believe 
" the exceeding great and precious promises." together with the things 
testified concerning the sufferings and resurrection of Jesus. He fell 
into a deep sleep ; and, while thus unconscious and insensible, his side 
w^as opened by a spear, and forthwith rushed blood and w^ater.^' Being 
awakened out of his sleep, he was built up a sjoiritual body, flesh 
and bones ; and, by his ascension, presented to the Father as the 
federal representative of his church. Tiiis is the aggregate of those, 
who, believing these things, have been introduced into Christ through 
the laver of the water ; according to the saying of the scriptures, 
"Ye are all the children of God in Christ Jesus through the faith. 
For as many as have been baptised into Christ liave put on 
Ciirist " {evecvaaade). ^ ^ ■'•• " Ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And 
if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and he[rs according 
to the iDromise."'' A community of such individuals as these con- 
stitutes the mystical body of Christ. By faith, its elements are " mem- 
bers of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." Hence, they are 

« Tit. iii. 5. ?'Actsxv. 9. " Eph. iii. 17. . f'Rom. x. 17. "Heb. xi. 1. /verse 6. 
i/l Peter i. 22. H Cor. vi. 11. 'Acts viii. 12. ; Johii xix. 33, 34. /'Gal. iii. 26-29. 



"the marriage, of the lamb." 49 

" bone of his bone, and flesli of liis flesh. ; " and therefore, the beloved 
Eve of the last Adam, the Lord who is to come from heaven, and 
make her of the same holy spiritual nature as his . own. Thns, the 
church is fig-uratively taken out of the side of her Lord ; for eyerj 
member of it believes in the remission of sins through his shed blood ; 
^nd they all believe in the real resurrection of his flesh and bones, 
for their justification unto life by a similar revival from the dead. 
*" Your bodies are the members," or flesh and bones, " of Christ ; 
-:•:- -:::- -:•:- ^^^^ j-j^g ^]^^^ jg joined unto the Lord is one spirit."" " I have 
espoused you to one husband," says Paul, " that I may present 3'Ou 
as a chaste virgin to Christ."^ It will be perceived, then, that the 
church as defined, is in the present state the espoused of Christ, but 
not actually married. She is in the formative state, being moulded 
under the hand of God. When she shall be completed, God will 
then present her to the Man from heaven, "arrayed in fine linen, 
clean and white. ""^ This is she of whom the psalmist sings, " Hearken, 
daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear ; forget also thine 
own people, and thy father's house ; so shall the king greatly desire 
thy bcEiuty : for he is thy Lord ; and worship thou him. The king's 
daughter is all glorious within ; her clothing is of wrought gold. She 
shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework ; the virgins, 
her companions that follow her, shall be brought unto thee. With 
gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought : they shall enter into 
the king s palace.'''^ The presentation of E-ve to the first A.dam was 
the signal of rejoicing to the Morning Stars ; and we perceive that the 
manifestation of Messiah's Queen will be attended with the " Alleluia " 
of a great multitude, sounding like the roaring of many waters, and 
the echoes of mighty thunderings, saying, " Let us be glad and rejoice, 
and give honour to the Lord God omnipotent : for the marriage of the 
Lamb is come, and his betrothed hath made herself ready." 

Such is the relationship and destiny of the true church, styled by 
Paul, " the One Body." It is forming by the word ; or, taking it as 
formed in the apostolic age, but not presented, the apprehension of 
the apostle has been sadly realized. "I fear," says he, " lest by any 
means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your 
minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." The 
tempter has seduced the betrothed. The simplicity in Christ is ho 
longer characteristic of a community. It is corrupted on every side ; 
and the ruin of the transgression alone prevails. Nevertheless, 
although there be no hope for the professing world, seeing that it is. 
too " wise in its own conceit ; " too self-satisfied with its supposed 
illumination ; glorifying itself, and saying, "I am rich, and increased 
with goods, and have need of nothing, and knows not," and will not 
be persuaded, " that it is wretched, and miserable, and poor, and 
blind, and naked : '' " — seeing, I say, that this is the irremediable con- 
dition of the religious public, yet there remains scope for the deliver- 
ance of those, who are disposed to obey God rather than men. If 
they would become bone of Christ's bone, and flesh of his flesh, they 

« 1 Cor. vi. 15, 17. i 2 Cor. xi. 2. c Rev. xix. 7, 8. ^ Psalm xlv. 10-15. 

e Rev. iii. 17. 



50 RUDBIENTS OF THE WORLD. 

must " leave father and mother, and be joined unto the wife." They 
find themselves now, perhaps, members of denominations as the}^ 
happen to be led. These are their parentage according to the fleshly 
mind. They must be forsaken, and men must become " one flesh " 
and " one spirit " in the Lord, if they would inherit the kingdom of 
God." " This is a great mystery/' says Paul ; " but I speak con- 
cerning Christ and the church."^ This mystery, I have endeavoured 
to elucidate in these remarks, though necessarily in a very brief, and 
therefore imperfect manner. When I shall have finished the work 
before me, it will have been more minutely unfolded, and, I trust, 
convincingly explained. 

EDEN. 

" In Eden." 

When Moses penned the words " in Eden,''" he was westward in 
" the wilderness of the land of Egypt." From the expression, then, 
we are to understand that there was a country styled Eden in his day, 
which lay to the eastward of his position. Adam and Eve were its 
aborigines. It was ''the East" of the Egyptians, as Ohio, Indiana, 
and Illinois are " the West " to the Atlantic American States. It was 
quite an extensive range of country, and in after times became the 
seat of powerful dominions. It appears to have been well watered by 
the branches, or tributaries, of "a river that went," or flowed, " out 
of it."°^ These were four principal streams, whose names, as given by 
Moses, are the Pison, " which compasseth the whole land of Havilah ;" 
the Gihon, " the same is it which compasseth the whole land of Khush," 
or Khushistan ; the third, the Hiddekel, or Tigris, " that is it which 
goeth eastward to Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates,"^ fre- 
quently st3ded in the scriptures, " the Great River."/ On the map 
before me, there are four rivers which flow together, and at length 
form a river which falls into the Persian Gulf. This indicates the 
country called Eden, namely, that which is watered by these rivers ; 
so that we may reasonably conclude that in early times it comprehended 
the land east of the Jordan, Syria, Assyria, part of Persia, Khushistan, 
and the original settlements of Ishmael.^ 

This country, in after ages, came to be denominated " the Garden of 
the Lord ;" and the kings who reigned in it, " the Trees of Eden." It 
was no doubt termed the Lord's garden as a whole, from the fact of 
His having, in the beginning, j)lanted a garden in it, where He ]Dut tlie 
man ; so that the name of a small part of Eden came to be applied by 
his family in the time of Seth, Noah, Shem, Abraham, and Moses, to 
the whole region ; more especially as the future paradise is to occupy 
a considerable portion of its ancient limits. 

The plain of Jordan appears to have been part of Eden from the 
following texts. " Lot beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well 
watered everywhere as the garden of the Lord. Then Lot chose him 
all the plain of Jordan ; and Lot journeyed east ; and dwelled in the- 
cities of the plain ;"'' that is, in the East, or Eden. 

« Matt. X. 37. ?> Eph. v. 22-32. c Qen. ii. 8 : ^ verse 10 : <• verses 11-14. 
/ Gen. XV. 18. u Gen. xxv. 18. '^ Gen. xiii. 10-12. 



EDEN. 51 

There is a prophecy in Ezekiel, predicting the overthrow of the 
Egyptian Pharaoh by the King of Babylon, " the mighty one of the 
heathen." In setting forth the certainty of his overthrow, God 
recapitulates the power and dominion of the Ninevite dynasty of 
Assyria ; which, however, was not able to withstand the King of 
Babylon, and therefore there was no hope for Egypt of a successful 
resistance. In the recapitulation, the Ninevite Assyrian is styled, 
" a cedar' in Lebanon " ; that is, his dominion extended over the land 
of the ten tribes of Israel, in which are the cedar-crowned mountains 
of Lebanon. After describing the greatness of his power by the 
magnitude of the cedar, the Lord says, " The cedars in the garden of 
God could not hide him ; nor was any tree in the garden of God like 
unto him in his beauty. I made him fair by the multitude of his 
branches ; so that all the trees of Eden, in the garden of God, envied 
him."^ These trees ^- are representative of the royalties of Meso- 
potamia, Syria, Israel, &c., which the kings of Assyria had 
abolished ;'' and which " could not hide him," or prevent him getting 
the ascendancy over them. It is clear, then, from the terms of this 
beautiful allegory, that the countries I have indicated are compre- 
hended in Eden ; that as a whole it is styled the garden of the Lord ; 
and that the trees are the royalties of the land. 

That Eden extended to the Mediterranean, or " Great Sea," 
appears from Ezekiel's prophecy against Tyre. Addressing the 
Tyrian royalty, he says " Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of the 
Lord. Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God. Thou wast 
perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity 
was found in thee. Therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the 
mountain of God. Thou shaft be a terror, and never shalt thou be 
any more."'^ The meaning of this is obvious to one acquainted with 
the history of the kingdom of Tyre. It was a royalty of Palestine in 
Upper Galilee, whose king, Hiram, was in intimate alliance with 
Solomon. He appears to have been a proselyte worshipper of the God 
of Israel ; whom his successors some time afterwards forsook ; and 
therefore God suppressed the kingdom of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar for 
seventy years ; and finally by the Greeks. 

Eden has been a field of blood from the beginning of the contest 
between the " Seed of the Woman," and the " Seed of the Serpent," 
until now ; and will yet continue to be until the serpent power be 
broken upon the mountains of Israel. It was in Eden that Abel died 
by the hand of Cain. There also Abel's antitype was wounded in 
the heel, when put to death upon the accursed tree ; and lastly, to fill 
up the measure of the iniquity of the blood-defiled land, the serpents 
of Israel slew the son of Barachus between the temple and altar. But 
the blood of God's saints shed in Eden, did not cry to Him for 
vengeance without effect ; for as the Lord Jesus declared, so it came 
to pass. "Behold," said he to the vipers of his day, "I send you 
prophets, and wise men, and scribes ; and some of them ye will kill 
and crucify ; and some of them ye will scourge in your synagogues, 

« Ezek. xxxi. 3, 8, 9. ^ Dan. iv. 20, 22. c Isaiah xsxvii. 12-13. 
d Ezek. xxviii. 13, 16, 19. 



12 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

and persecute from city to city : tliat Tipon yon may: come all the 
righteous blood shed upon the land, from the blood of righteous Abel 
unto the blood of Zecharias, son of Barachus, whom ye slew between 
the temple and the altar."" 

Eden is emphatically the Lord's land, or garden ; and from the 
creation till the breaking off of Israel's olive branch, the principal, 
and almost only, theatre upon which He exhibited His wonders to the 
nations in the days of old. Egypt and its wilderness may be excepted 
for forty years. Beyond its limits was outer darkness. Eden only 
was favoured with light, until the gospel found its way among the 
nations of the west ; and, although darkness covers the land, and gross 
darkness the people ; yet the Lord, its light, will arise apon it and His 
glory shall be seen there.^ 

THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 
" And the Lord God planted a garden, eastward in Eden." 

While Eden was "the East" eastward of the wilderness, the 
garden of Eden was eastward in Eden. "Eden the garden of the 
Lord," and "the garden of Eden," are quite different ideas. The 
former designates the whole of Eden as the Lord's garden ; the latter, 
as merely a plantation in some part of it. To plant a garden is to fence 
in a certain piece of land, and to adorn it with fruit and ornamental 
trees and shrubs. If unenclosed, and consequently, unguarded, it is 
not a garden. The name of the plantation implies that its surface 
was protected from the invasion of the animals, whose habits made 
them unfit tenants of a garden. The place, then, was an enclosure, 
planted with " every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for 
food." Its situation, Moses says, was " eastward," having a river 
flowing through it to water it. I suspect from this, that it lay some- 
where between the Grulf of Persia and the junction of the Euphrates 
and the Tigris. The text reads, " And a river went out of Eden to 
water the garden ; and from thence it was parted, and became into four 
heads ;" which I should interpret thus : — a river flowing out of Eden 
was caused to water the garden on its way to the sea ; and from the 
garden northward, the river diverged into its tributaries, which 
terminated at four several heads. The heads were not in the garden, 
but at remote distances from it. The garden of Eden was watered by 
only one, and not by four rivers ; as it is written, " a river went out 
to water it ;" which certainly excludes the four from its enclosure. 

In the septuagint of this text, the word garden is expressed by 
-KapaleKTOQ, which is transferred into our language without translation, 
Paradise is a Persian word adopted into the Greek, and expressed in 
Hebrew b}^ ^parades or pardes. It signifies a park, a forest, or pre- 
serve ; a garden of trees of various kinds, a delightful grove, &c. 
It is found in these texts : "I made me gardens (paradises), and 
orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruits ;"^ and, 
"A garden enclosed (a paradise) is my sister spouse, &c. ; thy plants 
are an orchard of pomegranates, &c."'^ The latter text is part of a 

a Matt, xxiii. 35. ^ Isaiah Ix. 1, 2. c Eccles. ii. 5. ^ Cant. iv. 12, 13. 



PARADISE. 53 

description of Solomon's vineyard, representative of that part of Eden 
over which, he reigned ; and metaphorical of its beauty, fertility, and 
glory, when the Heir of the vineyard, the " greater than Solomon," 
shall come to Zion, and "marry the land " of Eden, as defined in the 
everlasting covenant made with Abraham." For so it is written, " Thy 
land, Zion, shall no more be termed desolate : but thoa shalt be called 
Hephzibah (i.e., my heloved is in her), and thy land Benlah (i.e., 
married) : for Jehovah delighteth in thee, and thy land shall he 
married. For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons 
marry thee : and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall 
thy God rejoice over thee."^ 

When the marriage, or union, takes place between the sons of Zion, 
and their king, with the Land of Promise in Eden, it will again 
become the garden of the Lord, or Paradise, which His own right hand 
hath planted. For " the Lord shall comfort Zion : he wiU comfort 
all her waste places ; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and 
her desert like the garden of the Lord ; joy and gladness shall be 
found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody."" " Instead of 
the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall 
come up the myrtle tree : and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for 
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."'^ At that time, " I will 
open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys : 
I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs 
of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, 
and the myrtle tree, and the oil tree ; I will set in the desert the fir 
tree, and the pine, and the box together : that they (Israel) may see, 
and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the 
Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it."^ 

These testimonies reveal a future state in regard to Eden, of which 
its primitive garden is a beautiful and appropriate representation. 
Once the seat of a ^paradise on a small scale, it is destined to be trans- 
formed from its present desolation into " the Paradise of God.'" The 
country of the four rivers, even to the west from sea to sea, is prede- 
termined to shine forth as " the glory of all lands." Paradise hath 
no other locality. Other orbs may have their paradises ; but as far 
as man is concerned, the Paradise of God vdll be by Him planted in 
Eden according to " the 'promise.'" " In that day, shall Israel be the 
third with Egypt and Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the 
land ; " that is, of Eden : " whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless, say- 
ing, Blessed be Egypt, my people, and Assyria, the work of my 
hands, and Israel, mine inheritance."-'' 

In the letter to the congregation at Ephesus, the Spirit says, " To 
him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life, which is 
in the midst of the Paradise of God."» The simple import of this is 
as follows. The saints of God are termed in scripture, " Trees of 
Righteousness," which bring forth good fruit ; and the King of Saints, 
the Tree of Life. This, then, is the symbol of Christ as the giver of 
life. "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father ; so 

« Gen. XV. 18. ^ Isaiah Ixii. 4, 5. cisaiali li. 3. ^ Isaiah Iv. 13. « Isaiah xli. 17-20- 
/Isaiah xix. 24, 25. ffRev. ii. 7. 



54 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

he that eateth me," says Christ, " even he shall live hy me.''^ Hence, 
to give a man to eat of the Tree of Life, is for the Lord Jesus to raise 
a true believer from among the dead to incorruptible life. He will 
then eat, or partake, of that life, which he is ordained to bestow, who 
said of himself, " I am the way, and the truth, and the life.'' But, 
none of the believers, or heirs of life, can partake of the life-giving 
tree, until it is manifested in the Paradise of God ; that is, until the 
Lord appears in his Kingdom.^ We shall see in the second part of 
this work the particulars concerning this Kingdom. I shall, therefore, 
content myself with remarking here, that when it is manifested, it 
will be estabhshed in the Lord's land ; that is, in Eden. Hence, the 
promise, interpreted into plain English, is — " To the believer that 
overcomes the world,^ will I, the Lord, who am the life, give glory, 
honour, and immortality, when I come to stand on the Mount of 
Olives,^ and to re-establish the kingdom and throne of David, as in 
the days of old."^ There is no immortality, nor Paradise until then ; 
neither can any attain to them unless they " overcome the world " ; 
for the promise is only " to him that overcometh." 

But, to this doctrine sceptics object, that Paradise must have a 
present existence somewhere ; seeing that, on the day of his cruci- 
fixion, Jesus told the thief that he should be with him in Paradise on 
that day ; as it is written, " I say to thee, to-day shalt thou be with 
me in Paradise."^ I admit, that it is so written in English ; but, I 
find there are various readings and punctuations in the Greek. In the 
first place, the thief's petition is differently worded in some manu- 
scripts. In the common version it reads, *' Remember me, Lord, when 
thou comest in thy kingdom, kv rrj /Bao-tXe/a aov : but in others, it is 
various, though in sense the same — as, " Remember me when thou 
comest in the day of thy coming, ev rri Vfxipa Trjg eXevareiog aov. Now 
the Lord "comes in his kingdom" "in the day of his coming"; 
therefore, I say, the two phrases are in sense the same, only the latter 
more plainly suggests to " the unskilful in the word of righteous- 
ness, "» the import of the term " to-day," in the answer to the 
petition. 

In the next place, Jesus did not evade the thief's prayer, but gave 
him a direct and intelligible reply. He told him, in effect, that what 
he requested should be granted ; in other words, that when he was 
liimself in his kingdom he should be there too. But, does the reader 
imagine, that Jesus told him the time when, seeing that he was not 
even himself acq.uainted with the time when the Jewish State, as 
constituted by the Mosaic code, should be abolished ? And, till this 
was set aside, he could not come in his kingdom ; for then he is to 
sit and rule, and be a priest upon his throne ;'' which he could not be 
co-existent with the law : because the law of Moses would permit no 
one to officiate as a priest, who was not of the tribe of Levi ; and 
Jesus was descended from Judah.^ " Heaven and earth," or the 
Mosaic constitution of things in Eden, " shall pass away," said Jesus : 

(^ John vi. 57. ^ 2 Tim. iv. 1, 8 ; 1 Pet. i. 7, 13. « 1 John v. 4. ^ Zech. xiv. 4. 

c Amos ix. 11. / Luke xxiii. 43. r? Heh. v. 13. '» Zech. vi. 12-13, 15. 

iHeb. vii. 12-14. 



THE THIEF ON THE CROSS. 55 

" but of tliat day and hour knowetli no man — no, not the angels which 
are in heaven, neither the Son, bnt the Father."" 

Furthermore, does the reader suppose, that the Lord informed 
the thief of the time when he would come in his kingdom ; or, that 
it could j)ossibly be, that he came in his kingdom on the day of his 
suffering ; seeing that on the forty-third day afterwards, he refused to 
tell even the apostles, the times and the seasons when he would 
" restore again the kingdom to Israel ? " " It is not for you to know 
the times and the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own 
power."^ This was his language to the apostles. The kingdom could 
not be restored again to Israel under the Mosaic code. This had 
" decayed, and waxed old, and was ready to vanish away."" It was 
,to be " cast down to the ground," the daily sacrifice was to be taken 
away, and the temple and city to be demolished, by the Little Horn of 
the Goat, or Roman power.'^ To tell them of the times and the 
seasons of the kingdom, would have been to have informed them of 
this national catastrophe ; of which, they were kept in ignorance, 
that they might not fall asleep, but be continually on the watch. 

But, though Jesus did not then know the times and the seasons of 
the kingdom, he knows them now ; for, about thirty years after the 
destru.ction of Jerusalem, " God gave him a revelation of the things 
which must shortly come to pass ; ""^ and in this apocalypse, the times 
and seasons are set forth in order. But, to return to the case of the 
thief. In saying " to-day," Jesus did not, and could not, tell him the 
precise time when he should be with him in Paradise. In some trans- 
lations, there is a v^arious, and no doubt the correct, punctuation. 
The comma, instead of being after " thee," is placed after " to-day ; " 
as, "I say unto thee to-day, •••'—thou shaft be with me in the Paradise, 
ep Tu) Trapacetaa) : " that is, " At this time, or, I now say to thee, thou 
shalt be with me in my kingdom in the day of my coming." 

But, if the objector insist upon an interpretation of the passage as 
it stands in the common version, then let it be so ; his position will be 
by no means less easy to carry. His instantaneous translation of 
souls to Paradise at death, as far as it is fortified by this passage, 
hangs upon a thread, like the sword of the Syracusan tyrant ; and 
that is, the word " to-da}^" This is a scripture term, and must be 
explained by the scripture use of it. In the sacred writings, then, the 
term is used to express a period of over tico thousand years. This 
use of it occurs in David, as it is written, " To-day if ye will hear his 
voice, harden not your hearts, lest ye enter not into my rest."-'' The 
apostle, conmienting upon this passage about one thousand years after 
it was written, says, " Exhort one another daity, lohile it is called to-day ;" 
and, " Labour, to enter into the rest that remaineth for the people of 
God."-'' Thus, it was called " to-day," when David wrote ; and 

n Afark xiii. 31-32. ^ Acts i. 3, 6, 7. « Heb. viii. 13. ^ Dan. viii. 9-12, 24 : ix. 26. 
e Rev. i. 1. /Psalm xcv. 7-11. .7 Heb. iii. 13 : iv. 11, 9. 

-' Semeron (to-day), thus qiialiiies the preceding verb in Lu. ii. 11, and many- 
other passages in the N.T. Also in the LXX. of Deut. viii. 19 : ix. 1 : xxx. 18, 19 ; 
and other places. 



56 EUDIMENTS OF THE WOELD. 

" to-day," wlien Paul commented upon it. This was a long day ; but 
one, however, which is not yet finished ; and will continue unclosed 
until the manifestation of the rest in the Paradise of God. If it be 
admitted, that we are still in " the day of salvation," then it must be 
received as true, that we are living " while it is called to-day " — that 
"to-day" is now; and this "now" will be present until the Lord 
Jesus enters into his rest^ which he cannot do until he has finished 
the work God has given him to do.'' " Behold, noio is the time of 
acceptance; behold, now is the day,'' or the "to-day," "o/ salva- 
tion,'''^ — a period of time from Joshua to the future glorious manifes- 
tation of Christ in the kingdom, to say nothing of " the accepted 
time " to the patriarchs, before the typical rest of Israel in the 
promised land. 

Lastly, is it not the very climax of absurdity to talk of Jesus being 
"in his kingdom," or "in the Paradise," which were s^monymous, 
while he was lying dead in the tomb ? Is his kingdom among the 
dead ? He told the Pharisees it was among the living. " Oh, but," 
says one, " he descended into hell ; " " True," says another, " and 
while he was there he preached the gospel to the dead, and proclaimed 
repentance to the spirits in prison. He and the thief, that is to say, 
their souls, were there together as soon as death released them. This 
was Paradise." " Not exactly so," adds a third. " That savours too 
much of purgatory. They were in an intermediate state of blessed- 
ness before the throne of God, in the kingdoms beyond the skies." 
" How can that be," says a fourth ; "is the blessedness in God's 
presence only intermediate ? They went straight to the fulness of joy 
for evermore." Why, then, was Jesus raised that he might go to the 
Father ,'^ if he were with the Father before ; and, where did he leave 
the thief, for he was not raised ; and if not raised, but left behind, 
how can he be with the Lord in Paradise ? When this question is 
answered, it will be time enough to glance at the traditions extant 
upon this subject — dogmatisms, however, which none who understand 
the gospel of the kingdom can possibly entertain. 

MAN'S DOMINION. 

" Let them have dominion." 

The garden being prepared in Eden, the Lord placed the man 
there whom He had fonned. It was there the " deep sleep " came over 
him, and he first beheld his bride. They were now settled in Para- 
dise ; and, protected by its enclosure from the intrusion of the inferior 
creatures, they passed their days in blissful tranquillity ; innocent of 
transgression, and in peaceful harmony with God and the creatures 
He had made. Adam dressed the garden and kept it. This was his 
occupation. Though as yet sinless, it was no part of his enjoyments 
to be idle. To eat bread in the sweat of the face is sorrowful ; but 
to work without toil is an element of health and cheerfulness ; and 
is doubtless the rule of life to all the intelligences of the universe of 
God. 

« Tsalm cxxxii. 13-18. ^ Isaiah xlix. 5,-0, 8 : xl. 10. c 9 Cor. vi. 2. 
f' John xvi. 17. 



man's dominion. 57 

But lie was not simply an inhabitant of tlie Paradise, placed there 
" to dress and keep it." The work before him was to begin the 
replenishing, and subjugation of the earth. For in the blessing 
pronounced upon them, God said, " Be fruitful, and multiply, and 
replenish the earth, and subdue it." The material was- all before him. 
The earth was to be peopled ; and the culture of the garden, as the 
model of improvement, to be extended as his posterity spread them- 
selves over its surface. 

This command to " replenish the earth " strengthens my previous 
conclusion, that the earth had been inhabited at some period anterior 
to the creation of the six days ; and that its population had been all 
swept away by a catastrophe similar to the Noachic flood. That 
" replenish " means to fill the earth again, is manifest from the use 
of .the word in the blessing pronounced upon Noah. As it is written, 
"■ And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, ' Be 
fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.' " There is no room 
for dispute here. Every one must admit that it signifies to fill again ; 
for, having been filled by Adam, all his posterity, except eight persons, 
were swept away by the deluge ; and Noah and his sons were to supply 
their place, or refill it, as at this day. I see, therefore, no good reason 
^v^hy the same word should not be similarly interpreted in both cases ; 
which I have concluded to do.'--- 

Man's conquests in a sinless state were to be over rocks, mountains, 
seas, and rivers, by which he might subdue them to his own con- 
venience and enjoyment ; and, perhaps, had he continued innocent of 
transgression until his mission was accomplished ; that is, until by his 
fruitfulness he had filled the earth again with people, and had subdued 
it from its ■ natural wildness to a paradisaic state — his nature would 
have been exalted to an equality with the Elohim : and the earth, 
without any violent changes, have become his dwelling place for ever. 
But, the Creator foreseeing thatman would transgress, laid the founda- 
tion of the earth upon such principles as would afterwards accommo- 
date it to his altered circumstances. Had He foreseen a result different 
from what has actually come to pass, He would, doubtless, have 
framed or constituted it with reference to that result. But, while He 
did not necessitate man's transgression. His plan was to constitute a 
natural world with reference to it as its basis ; and then, on the other 
hand, without necessitating man's obedience, to constitute a spiritual, 
or incorruptible, order of things upon the earth, having an intelligent 
and voluntary conformity to His precepts, as the foundation upon 
which it should be built. This, then, is the present order of things. 
Man is replenishing the earth and sabdaing it. He is reducing it 
from its natural wildness. Subduing land and sea to the convenience 
of nations ; and subjugating, likewise, the wild creatures of his own 
species to law and order, and exterminating the untameable y — he is 
preparing the world for an advance to a more exalted, yet not perfect, 
state, which the Man from heaven shall introduce, and establish ; not, 

* But the Heb. maleh (to fill) must not be strained. It does not of itself convey 

the idea, v-eplenish. 



58 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

however, upon the destruction of nature and society, but upon the 
improvement of the first, and the regeneration of the last ; which 
shall continue for a thousand years, as the intermediate state between 
the present purely animal and natural, and the final purely spiritual, 
or incorruptible, and unchangeable constitution of the globe. 

In carrying his mission into ejffect, it was necessary that the animal 
man should have dominion. He was too feeble to execute it without 
assistance ; and there was no soarce from which he could receive 
voluntary aid. It was needful, therefore, that he should receive power 
by which he could compel the co-operation he required. For this 
reason, as well as for his own defence against the inconvenient 
familiarity of the inferior creatures with their lord, God gave him 
dominion over them all. " Have dominion," said he, " over the fish of 
the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all 
the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the 
earth." This was the charter of man's sovereignty over flesh and 
blood. Himself the king, and alL living creatures the subjects of his 
dominion. As to his own species, however, he was permitted to be 
neither a law to himself, nor to his fellows. 

The right of man to exercise lordship over his fellow-man beyond 
the circle of his own family, was not granted to him " by the grace of 
God.'' God's grace only conferred upon him what I have already 
stated. Even his domestic sovereignty was to cease, when the time 
came for one to leave father and mother. After this separation, all 
paternal rule ended; and the only bondage which continued was the 
yoke of affection. Man rules in his family by the grace of God, which 
says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord ; for this is right. 
Honour thy father and mother ; which is the first commandment icith 
a 'promise ; that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long 
in the land." This obedience is founded on the fitness of things ; 
but even this is not enjoined absolutely. It is only " parents in the 
Lord,'' who have a divine right to expect unqualified obedience from 
the Christian children of their household. If parents not in the Lord, 
require their children to do contrary to, or to abstain from doing, His 
will, obedience should be firmly, but affectionately, refused. This 
would probably produce trouble and division in the family, if the 
j)arent were an uncultivated man of the flesh, or a bigot. In that 
case, he would behave like a tyrant, and endeavour to coerce them to 
obey him, rather than their conviction of the truth ; whose nature 
it is to divide between flesh and spirit, sinners and saints, and to 
create a man's foes out of the members of his own household." But 
such children should remember that "it is better to obey God than 
man " ;^ and that he that loves parents more than Jesus, is not 
worthy of him. Better leave the paternal roof as an outcast, than to 
dishonour him by preferring their laws to his. 

If man's domestic sovereignty be thus qualified and limited by the 
grace of God, shall we say that He conferred on man " a divine right " 
to govern his species in its spiritual and civil concerns ? To found 
kingdoms and empires, and to invent religions as a means of imparting 

a Matt. X. 35-36. ^ Acts iv. 19 : v. 29. 



GOD AND THE POWEES THAT BE. 59 

dnrability to their thrones ? What God permits and regulates is one 
thing ; and what He appoints is another. He permits thrones and 
dominions, principahties and powers, to exist ; He regulates them, 
setting over them the basest of men," if su.ch answer His intentions 
best ; prevents them circumventing His purposes ; and conmiands His 
saints to "be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power 
but of God ; the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever 
therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God : and they 
that resist shall receive to themselves punishment. For the magistrates 
are not a terror to good deeds, but to the evil. ■••■' ■••■' ■■• Do that 
which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same : for he is a 
servant of God unto that which is good for thee."^ 

God did not commission man to set up these powers. All He 
required of him was to obey whatsoever He chose to appoint. But, 
when man became a rebel, his rebellious sjoirit was transmitted to his 
posterity ; and, refusing to be governed by the grace of God, they 
founded dominions of their own, "upon principles which were utterly 
subversive of the government of God upon the earth. He could as 
easily have quashed their treasonable proceedings as He stojDjDed the 
building of Babel ; but in His wisdom He chose rather to give them 
scope, and to subject their usurpations to such regulations as would in 
the end promote His own glory and their confusion. Therefore it is 
that Paul says every power is of God ; and the powers that be are 
ordained of Him. This is matter of great consolation and rejoicing 
to His saints ; for, though the tyrants may propose, it is God only that 
disposes events. The saints who understand the word will keep aloof 
from politics. None are more interested in them than they ; but they 
will mix themselves up neither with one party nor another ; for God 
regulates them all : therefore to be found in any such strife would be 
to contend in some way or other against Him. The servant of the 
Lord must not strive, except " for the faith once delivered to the 
saints." For this he is commanded to " contend earnestly ;"° because 
such a contention is to " fight the good fight of faith," and to " lay 
hold on eternal life." 

In the beginning, then, God reserved to Himself the right of 
dominion over the human race. He gave it not to Adam, nor to his 
posterity ; but claimed the undivided sovereignty over all man's con- 
cerns for Himself by right of creation ; and for him whom He might 
ordain as His representative upon earth. All the kingdoms that have, 
or do exist, with the exception of the Commonwealth of Israel,- are 
based upon the usurpation of the rights of God, and of His Son Jesus 
Christ ; nor is there a king or queen, pope or emperor, among the 
Gentiles, who reigns " by the grace of God." They reign by the 
same grace, or favour, by which sin reigns over the nations. They 
have no favour in the eyes of God. He bears with them for a time ; 
and makes use of them as His sword to maintain order among the 
lawless ; until His gracious purposes in favour of His saints shall be 
manifested, according to the arrangement of the times He has disposed. 
Then " will his saints be joyful in glory ; and the high praises of God 

o Dan. iv. 17. i> Rom, xiii. 1-5. " Jude 3. 



60 EUDIMENTS OF THE WOELD. 

be in their moutli, and a two-edged sword in their hand : to execute 
vengeance upon the heathen, and panishments upon the people ; to bind 
their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron ; to 
execute upon them the judgment written : this honour have all his 
saints. Praise ye the Lord."** 

THE TREE OF KNOWLEDG-E OF GOOD AND EVIL. 

" Out of the groTind made the Ijord G-od to grow the Tree of Life in the midst of 
the garden, and the Tree of Elnowledge of good and eviL" 

These are the most remarkable trees that have ever appeared in the 
vegetable kingdom. They were " pleasant to the sight, and good for 
food.'' This, however, is all that is said about their nature and 
appearance. They would seem to have been the only trees of their 
kind ; for, if they had been common, Eve's desire to taste the fruit of 
the Tree of Knowledge, and their inclination to eat of that of the 
Tree of Life, could have been gratified by eating of other similar 
trees. What the fruits were we cannot tell ; nor is it important to 
know. Supposition says, that the Tree of Knowledge was an apple 
tree ; but testimony makes no deposition on the subject ; therefore we 
can believe nothing in the case. 

These trees, however, are interesting to us, not on account of their 
natural characteristics, but because of the interdict which rested upon 
them. Adam and Eve were permitted to take freely of all the other 
trees in the garden, " but of the Tree of Knowledge of good and 
evil," said the Lord God, " thou shalt not eat of it, neither shall ye 
touch it : for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely 
die.''^ Naturally, it was as good for food as any other tree ; but, as 
soon as the Lord God laid His interdict upon it, its fruit became death 
to the eater ; not instant death, however, for their eyes were to be 
opened,'' and they were to become as the gods, or Elohim, being 
acquainted with good and evil even as they.'^ The final consequence 
of eating of tliis tree being death, it may be styled the Tree of Death 
in contradistinction to the Tree of Life. Decay of body, and conse- 
quent termination of life, ending in corruption, or mortality, was the 
attribute which this fatal tree was prepared to bestow upon the indi- 
vidual who should presume to touch it. 

In the sentence ''Thou shalt surely die'' death is mentioned in the 
Bible for the first time. But Adam lived several centuries after he 
had eaten of the tree, which has proved a difficulty in the definition of 
the death there indicated, hitherto insuperable upon the principles of 
the creeds. Creed theology paraphrases the sentence thus — ^" In the 
day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die figuratively, thine immortal soul 
becoming liable to the pains of hell for ever ; and thy body shall die 
literally afterwards." But, it is very evident to one unspoiled by the 
philosophy of the creeds, that this interpretation is not contained in 
the text. The obscurity which creates the difficulty does not lie in 
the words spoken, but in the English version of them. The phrase 
" in the day " is supposed to mean that on the very day itself upon 

« Psalm cxlix. 5-9. ^ Gen. ii. 17 : iii. 3. ^ Gen. iii. 5, 7. ^ Gen. iii. 5, 22. 



FRUIT OF THE TREE, LITERAL AND FIGURATIVE. 61 

wluch Adam transgressed, lie was to die in some sense. But tins is 
not the nse of tlie phrase even in the English of the same chapter. 
For in the fourth verse of the second chapter, it is written, " in the 
day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every 
plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the 
field before it grew." This, we know, was the work of six days ; so 
that " in the day " is expressive of that period. But in the text before 
us, the same phrase represents a much longer period, for Adam did 
not die until he was 930 years old ; therefore, the day in which he died 
did not terminate till then. 

Bat it may be objected that the day in the text must be limited 
to the day of the eating ; because it saj's, " in the day that thou eatest 
thereof thou shalt surely die: " and as he was not eating of it 930 
years, but only partook of it once on a certain natural day, it cannot 
mean that long period. But I am not prepared to admit that the 
physical action of eating is the only eating indicated in the text. Adam 
fed upon the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge all the time from his 
eating of the natural fruit until he died. The natural fruit in its effect 
was figurative of the fruit of transgressing the interdict, which said, 
" Thou shalt not eat of it." The figurative fruit was of a mixed 
character. It was " good,^^ or pleasant to the flesh ; but " eviV in its 
consequences. " By the law,^' says the apostle, " is the knowledge of 
sin;'' for " sin is the transgression of law."" Sin is pleasant to the 
flesh ; because the deeds forbidden are natural to it. It is that " good'' 
fruit which the animal man delights to eat. The flesh, the eyes, and 
life, have all their desires, or lusts, which, when gratified, constitute 
the chief est good that men under their dominion seek after. 

But God has forbidden indulgence in these lusts. He says, " Love 
not the world, neither th(3 things that are in the world. If any man 
love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is 
in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride 
of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. "^ And again, " The 
friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore 
will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God :"'' and, " If ye live 
after the flesh ye shall die."'^ This language is unmistakeable. To 
indulge, then, in the lawless i3leasures, which " sinful flesh " terms 
*' good," is to " bring forth sin,'''^ or to bear fruit unto death ; because 
" the wages of sin is death."/ " Whatsoever a man soioeth, that shall 
he also reap. For he that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap 
corruption."^ All " the ills that flesh is heir to " make up the " evil," 
which has come upon man as the result of transgressing the law of 
God, which said to Adam, " Thou shalt not eat thereof." The fruit of 
his eating was the gTatification of his flesh in the lusts thereof, and 
the subjection of himself and posterity to the " evil " of eating of the 
cursed ground in sorrow all the days of their lives.'' 

All the posterity of Adam, when they attain the age of puberty, 
and their eyes are in the opening crisis, begin to eat of the Tree of 
the Knowledge of good and evil. Previous to that natural change, 

« Rom. iii. 20 ; 1 John iii. 4. ^ Johii ii. 15, 16. c James iv. 4. <^ Rom. viii. 13. 
e James i. 15. / Rom. vi. 21-23. 3 Gal. vi. 7. 8. '^ Gen. iii. 17-19. 



62 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

they are in their innocencj. But, thenceforth, the world, as a serpent- 
entwined fruit tree, stands before the mind, enticing it to take and 
eat, and enjoy the good things it ajffords. To speculate upon the law- 
fulness of compliance is partly to give consent. There must be no 
reasoning upon the harmlessness of conforming to the world. Its 
enticements without, and the sympathizing instincts of the flesh 
within, must be instantly suppressed ; for, to hold a parley with its 
lusts, is dangerous. When one is seduced by " the deceitfulness of 
sin," " he is drawn away of his own lusts, and enticed. Then when 
lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin ; and sin when it is finished, 
bringeth forth death : "" in other words, he plucks the forbidden fruit, 
and dies, if not forgiven. 

Furthermore, the sentence " Thou shalt surely die,'^ is proof that 
the phrase " in the day " relates to a longer period than the day of 
the natural eating. This was not a sentence to be consummated in a 
moment, as when a man is shot or guillotined. It required time ; 
for the death threatened was the result, or finishing, of a certain pro- 
cess ; which is very clearly indicated in the original Hebrew. In 
this language the phrase is muth temuth, which literally rendered is, 
DYING THOU SHALT DIE."'"'' The Sentence, then, as a whole reads thas — 
" In the day of thy eating from it dying thou shalt die.'' From this 
reading, it is evident, that Adam was to be subjected to a process, but 
not to an endless process ; but to one which should commence with the 
transgression, and end with his extinction. The process is expressed 
by muth, dying ; and the last stage of the process by temuth, thou 

SHALT DIE. 

This view is fully sustained by the paraphrase found in the follow- 
ing words : — " Cursed is the ground for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt thou 
eat of it all the days of thy life. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou 
eat bread till thou return into the ground ; for out of it wast thou 
taken ; for dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return."^ The 
context of this informs us, that x4.dam having transgressed, had been 
summoned to trial and judgment for the offence. The Lord God 
interrogated him, saying, " Hast thoa eaten of the tree of which I 
commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat ? " Adam confessed 
his guilt, which was sufficiently manifest before by his timidity, and 
shame at his nakedness. The offence being proved, the Judge then 
23roceeded to pass sentence upon the transgressors. This He did in 
the order of transgression ; first upon the Serpent ; then upon Eve ; 
and lastly upon Adam, in the words of the text. In these, the ground 
is cursed, and the' man sentenced to a life of sorrowful labour, and to a 
resolution into his original and parent dust. The terms in which the 
last particular of his sentence is expressed, are explanatory of the 
penalty annexed to the law. " Thou shalt return into the ground," 
and, " Unto dust shalt thou return," are phrases equivalent to " dying 

« James i. 14, 15. ^.Gen. iii. 19. 

■■•• The Hebrew idiom is correctly represented by the text of the A.V. Compare 
verse 16 (marg.), "Eating thou shalt eat; " and Deut. xiii. 15, lit., "Smiting thou 
shalt smite." 



ON" THE MARCH TO THE GRAVE. 63 

thoa slialt die." Hence, the divine interpretation of the sentence, " In 
the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," is, " In the day of 
thy eating all the days of thy life of sorrow, returning thou shalt 
return into the dust of the ground whence thou wast taken." Thus, 
" dying, ^' in the meaning of the text, is to be the subject of a sorroic- 
ful, painful, and laborious existence, which wears a man out, and 
brings him down to the brink of the grave ; and, by " die,'^ is signified 
the end, or last stage, of corporeal existence, which is marked by a 
ceasing to hreathe, and decomposition into dust. Thus, man's life from 
the womb to the grave is a dying existence ; and, so long as he retains 
his form, as in the case of Jesus in the sepulchre, he is existent in 
death ; for what is termed being is corporeal existence in life and 
death. The end of our being is the end of that process by which we 
are resolved into dast^ — we cease to be. This was Adam's state, if we 
may so speak, before he was created. He had no being. And at this 
non-existence he arrived after a lapse of 930 years from his formation ; 
and thus were practically illustrated the penalty of the law and the 
sentence of the Judge. For from the day of his transgression, he 
began his pilgrimage to the grave, at which he surely arrived. He 
made his couch in the dust, and saw corruption ; and with its mother 
earth connningled all that was known as Adam, the federal head, and 
chief father of mankind. 

TREE OF LIFE. 

" Eat and live for ever." 

This was planted " in the midst of the garden." It was also a 
fruit-bearing tree. It would seem to have been as accessible as the 
Tree of Knowledge ; for after the man had eaten of this, he was 
driven out of the garden that he might not touch that likewise. Its 
fruit, however, was of a quality entirely opposite to that of which they 
had eaten. Both trees bore good fruit ; but that of the Tree of Life 
had the quality of perpetuating the living existence of the eater for 
ever. This appears from the testimony of Moses, who reports that 
after the transgressors had received judginent, " the Lord God said, 
Behold the man has become as one of us, to know good and evil : and 
now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life, and 
eat and live for ever : therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the 
garden of Eden, to till the ground whence he was taken."" From this, 
we learn that the Lord God had instituted this tree to give life, and 
that Adam was aware of what would result from eating of its fruit. 
It is probable that, had he been obedient to the law of the Tree of 
Knowledge, he would have been permitted to eat of the Tree of Life, 
after he had fulfilled his destiny as an animal man ; and, instead of 
dying away into dust, have been " changed in the twinkling of an eye," 
as Enoch was ; and as they" are to be who shall be ready for the Lord 
at his coming. But of this we can say nothing certain, because nothing 
is testified on the subject ; and beyond the testimony our faith cannot 
go, though opinion and credulity may. 

« Gen. iii. 22, 23. 



64 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD, 

If, then, Adam liad eaten of the Tree of Life, he would have been 
changed from a hving soul into a soul capable of living for ever : 
and not only capable, but it would seem, that being immortal, the 
Lord God would have permitted him to remain so. For, we are not 
to suppose, that, if a thing become capable of undecaying existence, 
therefore its creator cannot destroy it ; consequently, if Adam as a 
sinner had eaten of the Tree of Life, his immortality would have 
been only permitted, and not necessitated contrary to the power of the 
Lord God. 

To have permitted Adam and Eve to become deathless and to 
remain so, in a state of good and evil such as the world experiences, 
would have been a disproportionate and unmerciful punishment. It 
would have been to populate the earth with deathless sinners ; and to 
convert it into the abode of deathless giants in crime ; in other words, 
the earth would have become, what creed theologians describe " hell " 
to be in their imagination. The good work of the sixth day would 
then have proved a terrible mishap, instead of the nucleus of a 
glorious manifestation of divine wisdom and power. But a world of 
undying sinners in a state of good and evil, was not according to the 
divine plan. This required first the sanctification of sinners ; then 
their probation ; and afterwards, their exaltation, or humiliation, 
according to their works. Therefore, lest Adam should invert this 
order, and " put on immortality " before he should be morally renewed, 
or purified from sin, and the moral likeness of God be formed in him 
again ; the Lord God expelled him from the dangerous vicinity of the 
Tree of Life. He drove him forth that he should not then become 
incorruptible and deathless. 

The first intimation of immortalit}^ for man is contained in the text 
before us. But, in this instance it eluded his grasp. He was expelled 
" lest he should eat, and live for ever." It was because immortality 
belonged to this tree ; or rather, was communicable b}^ or through it 
to the eater, that it was styled etz ha-chayim, that is, the Tree of the 
Lives ; for that is its name when literally rendered. The phrase " of 
the lives " is particularly appropriate ; for it was the tree of endless 
life both to Adam and Eve, if permitted to eat of it. If the world 
enticing to sin, be fitly represented by the serpent-entwined tree, 
imparting death to its victim, Christ, who " has overcome the 
world,"" as the giver of life to his people, is well set forth by the other 
tree in the midst of the garden ; which was a beautiful emblem of the 
incarnated power and wisdom^ of the Deity, planted as the Tree of 
Life in the future Paradise of God.'' 

MAN IN HIS iviO VITIATE. 

" God made man upright." 

When the work of the si:x days was completed, the Lord God 

reviewed all that He had made, and pronounced it " very good." 

This quality pertained to everything terrestriah The beasts of the 

field, the fowls of the air, reptiles, and man, were all " very good ; " 

« John xvi. 33. '' Proy. iii. 13, 18 ;' 1 Cor. i. 24. «Rev. xxii. 2. 



MAX IN HIS XOVITIATE. 65 

and all made up a natural system of things, or world, as perfect as 
the nature of tilings required. Its excellency, however, had relation 
solely to its phj^sical quality. Man, though " very good," was so only 
iis a piece of divine workmanship. He was made diiferent from w^hat 
he afterwards became. Being made in the image, after the likeness of 
the Elohim, he was "made upright." He had no conscience of evil; 
for he did not know what it was. He was neither virtuous, nor vicious ; 
hoh^, nor unhol}^ ; but in his beginning simjDly innocent of good or 
evil deeds. Being without a history, he was without character. This 
had to be developed ; and could only be formed for good or evil, by his 
own independent action under the divine law. In short, when Adam 
and Eve came forth from the hand of their potter, they were morally in 
a similar condition to a new-born babe ; excepting that a babe is 
born under the constitution of sin, and involuntarily subjected to 
" vanity ; "" while they first beheld the light in a state of things where 
•evil had as yet no place. They were created in the stature of a perfect 
man and woman ; but with their sexual feelings undeveloped ; in 
ignorance, and withoat experience. 

The interval between their formation and the transgression was the 
period of their novitiate. The Spirit of God had made them ; and 
during tliis time, " the inspiration of the Almighty was giving them 
understanding."^ In this way, knowledge was imparted to them. It 
became power, and enabled them to meet all the demands of their 
situation. Thus, they were " taught of G-od," and became the deposi- 
tories of those arts and sciences, in which they afterwards instructed 
their sons and daughters, to enable them to till the ground, tend the 
ilocks and herds, provide the conveniences of life, and subdue the 
earth. 

Guided by the precepts of the Lord God, his conscience continued 
good, and his heart courageous. " They were naked, both the man 
and his wife, and were not ashamed."'' They were no more abashed 
than children in their nudity ; for, though adults in stature, yet, being 
ill the infancy of nature, they stood before the Elohim and in the face 
of one another, without embarrassment. This fact was not accident- 
ally recorded. As we shall see hereafter, it is a clue, as it were, given 
to enable us to understand tlie nature of the transgression. 

While in the state of good unmixed with evil, were Adam and Eve 
mortal or immortal ? This is a question which presents itself to many 
who study the Mosaic account of the origin of things. It is an 
interesting question, and worthy of all attention. Some hastily 
reply, they were mortal ; that is, if they had not sinned they would 
nevertheless have died. It is probable they would after a long time, 
if no further change had been operated upon their nature. But 
the Tree of Life seems to have been provided, for the purpose of this 
change being effected, through the eating of its fruit, if they had 
proved themselves worthy of the favour. The animal nature will 
sooner or later dissolve. It was not constituted so as to continue in 
life for ever, independent of any further modification. We may admit, 
therefore, the corruptibility, and consequent mortality, of their nature, 

« Rom. viii. 20. '' Job xxxiii. 4 : xxxil. 8. c Qen. ii. 25. 



66 RUDTMEKTS OF THE WORLD. 

without saying that they were mortal. The inherent tendency of 
their nature to death would have been arrested ; and they would 
have been changed as Enoch and Elijah were ; and as they of whom 
Paul sajs, " We shall not all die.'' The '' ive " here indicated possess 
an animal, and therefore corruptible nature ; and, if not " changed," 
would surely die : but inasmuch as they are to "be changed in the 
twinkhng of an eye at the last trumpet," though corruptible, they are 
not mortal. In this sense, therefore, I say, that in their novitiate, 
Adam and his betrothed had a nature eapahle of corruption, but were 
not subject to death, or mortal. The penalty was " dying thou shalt 
die ; " that is, " You shall not be permitted to eat of the Tree of Life 
in arrest of dissolution ; but the inherent tendency of your animal 
nature shall take its course, and return you to the dust whence you 
originally came." Mortality was in disobedience as the wages of sin, 
and not a necessity. 

But, if they were not mortal in their novitiate, it is also true that 
they were not immortal. To say that inmiortals were expelled from 
the garden of Eden, that they might not live for ever by eating of 
the tree, is absurd. The truth is in few words, man was created with 
a nature endued with certain susceptibilities. He was cajoable of death ; 
and capable of endless life ; but, whether he should merge into mor- 
tality ; or, by a physical change be clothed with immortality, was 
preclicated on his choosing to do good or evil. Capacity must not be 
confounded with impletion. A vessel may be capable of holding a 
pint of fluid ; but it does not therefore follow that there is a pint in 
it, or any at all. In the Paradise of Eden, mortalit}^ and immor- 
tality were set before the man and his companion. The}^ were external 
to them. They were to avoid t[-\e former, and seek after the latter, 
by obedience to the law of God. They were capable of being filled 
with either ; but with w^hich de|)endecl upon their actions : for immor- 
tality is the end of holiness," without which no man can see the 
Lord. 

We meet with no traces in the Mosaic history of ceremonial 
observances, or religious worship, pertaining to the novitiate. To 
rest one day in seven ; believe that the Lord God would perform His 
word if they transgressed ; and to abstain from touching the Tree of 
Knowledge, was all their gracious benefactor required. There was 
no " religion " in the garden of Eden — no sacrifices, or offerings ; for 
sin was as yet a stranger there. Their tenure of the Paradise was 
predicated upon their abstinence from sin ; so that it could be forfeited 
only by transgression of the law of the Lord. 

« Rom. vi. 22. 



god's law, and how sin entered into the world. 67 



CHAPTER III. 

GOD'S LAW, AND HOW SIN ENTERED INTO THE WORLD. 

Probation before exaltation, the law of the moral universe of God. — The temptation 
of the Lord Jesus by Satan the trial of his faith by the Father. — The Temptation 
explained. — God's foreknowledge does not necessitate ; nor does He justify, or 
condemn, by anticipation. — The Serpent an intellectual animal, bat not amoral 
agent, nor inspired. — He deceives the woman. — The nature of the transgression. 
■ — Eve becomes the tempter to Adam. — -The transgression consummated in the 
conception of Cain. — A good conscience, and an evil conscience, defined. — 
Man cannot cover his own sin.— The carnal mind illustrated by the reasoning 
of the Serpent. — It is metaphorically the Serpent in the flesh. — God's truth the 
only rule of right and Avrong. — The Serpent in the flesh is manifested in the 
wickedness of individuals : and in the spiritual and temporal institutions of 
the world. — Serpent-sin in the flesh identified with "the Wicked One." — The 
Prince of the World. — The Kingdom of Satan and the World identical. — The 
Wiles of the Devil. — The " Prince " shown to be ^hi, working and reigning in 
all sinners. — How he was "cast out " by Jesus.- — •" The works of the Devil." — 
" Bound of Satan ; " delivering to Satan. — -The Great Dragon — the Devil and 
Satan. — The Man of Sin. 

Man in the first estate is " a little lower than the angels ; " but, in the 
second, or higher, estate, he is to be " crowned with glory and honour ; " 
and to take his stand in the universe upon an equality with them in 
nature and renown. Man's first estate is the natural and animal ; 
his second, the spiritual, or incorruptible. To be exalted from the 
present to the future state and inheritance, he must be subjected to 
trial. From the examples recorded in the scriptures, it is evident, 
that God has established it as the rule of His grace ; that is, the prin- 
ciple upon which He bestows His honours and rewards — to prove men 
before He exalts them. Probation, then, is the indispensable ordeal, 
to which every man is subjected in the providence of God, before he 
is accepted as " fit for the Master's use."'* By these examples, also, 
it appears, that man's probation is made to bear upon the trial of his 
faith by testing his obedience. An untried faith is worth nothing ; 
but a faith that stands the test of trial, " is much more precious than 
gold which perisheth, though it be tried with fire ; " because the sus- 
tained trial will be " found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the 
appearance of Jesus Christ."^ 

An untried faith is a dead faith, being alone. Faith without trial 
finds no scope for demonstration, or evidence of its existence. Thus, 
it is written, " Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. 
'Yea,' a man may say, 'thou hast faith, and I have works :' shoiv me 
thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith hy my 
works. Thou believest that there is one God ; thou doest well ; the 
devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, vain man, 
that faith without works is dead ? Was not Abraham our father 
justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar ? 

« 2 Tim. ii. 20, 21. i 1 Pet. i. 5-7. 



68 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

Seest thou liow faith, wrought with his works, and hy works was faith 
made perfect. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and 
NOT hy faith alont:."" " Without faith," says Paul, " it is impossible 
to please God " ; and it is also apparent from James' testimony just 
recited, that the faith with which He is ^Dleased, is a faith that is made 
manifest by works ; of which Noah, Abraham, Job, and Jesus, are 
pre-eminent examples. 

Now, this " precious faith " can only be educed by trial ; for the 
trial elaborates the works. This is the use of persecution, or tribula- 
tion, to believers ; which in the divine economy is ajopointed for their 
refinement. Peter styles the " manifold persecutions," to which his 
brethren were subjected, " the trial of their faith " ; and Paul testified 
to others of them, that "it is through much tribulation they must 
enter the Kingdom." Probation is a refining process. It purges out 
a man's dross, and brings out the image of Christ in his character ; 
and prepares him for exaltation to his throne.^ We can only enter the 
Kingdom through the fire ;'"' but, if a man be courageous, and " hold 
fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end," he 
will emerge from it unscorched ; and be presented hoty, unblameable, 
and unrebukeable "^ before the King. 

A man cannot " honour God " more than in believing ichat Re 
promises, and doing what He commands ; although to repudiate that 
belief, and to neglect, or disobey, those commands, should liighty 
gratify all his senses, and place at his disposal the kingdoms of the 
world, and all their glory. Not to believe the promises of God is in 
effect to call God a liar ; and no offence, even to men of integrity in 
the world, is so insulting and intolerable as this. " Let God be true," 
saith the scripture. His veracity must not be impeached in word or 
deed ; if it be, then *' judgment without mercy " is the " sorer 
j)unishment " which awaits the calumniator. The unswerving obedience 
of faith, is the " faith made perfect by works," tried by fire. God is 
j^leased with this faith, because it honours Him. It is a working faith. 
There is life in it ; and its exercise proves that the believer loves Him. 
8uch a man it is God's delight to honour ; and, though like Jesus he 
be for the present, " despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows 
jmd acquainted with grief," the time will certainly come, when God 
Avill acknowledge him in the presence of the Elohim, and overwhelm 
his enemies with confusion of face. 

Probation before exaltation, then, is upon the principle oi a faith 
in the promises of God, made precious hy trial well sustained. There 
is no exemption from tliis ordeal. Even Christ himself w^as subjected 
to it. " By the grace of God he tasted death for ever}^ man. For it 
was fitting for God, that "•••' '••■■ •■• in bringing many sons to glory. 
He should make the Captain of their salvation perfect through suffer- 
ings. For in that he himself hath suffered he.ing put to the proof 
(TreipaaBeig), he is able to succour them who are tried"^ And " though 
he were a Son, yet learned he obedience hy the things which he 
suffered : and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal 

« James ii. 17-24. '' Rev. iii. 21. '• 1 Cor. ii. 13. '' Col. i. 22-23. 
'■Heb. ii. 9-18. 



THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS. 69 

salvation unto all them that obey him.''^ He was first morally perfected 
througli suffering ; and then corporeally, by being " made into a 
spirit " by the spirit of holiness in his resurrection from the dead. 
I say, "morally perfected " ; for, although he was without transgres- 
sion, his perfection of character is predicated upon his " obedience 
unto death." 

The probation of the Lord Jesus is an interesting and important 
study, especially that part of it styled, tlie Temptation of Satan. Paul, 
speaking of him as the High Priest under the New Constitution, says, 
*' He was put to the proof in all things according to our likeness, 
without transgression ; "'^ that is, " having taken hold of the seed of 
Abraham," " being found in fashion as a man," the infirmities of 
human nature were thus laid upon him. He could sympathize witli 
them experimentally ; being, by the feelings excited within him when 
enticed, well acquainted with all its weak points. By examining the 
narrative of his trial in the wilderness, we shall find that he was 
proved in all the assailable points of human nature. As soon as he 
was filled with the Spirit'' at his baptism in the Jordan, it immediately 
drove liim'^ into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.'' This 
was very remarkable. The spirit led him there that he might be put 
to the proof ; but not to tempt him ; for, says the apostle, " let no 
man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God : for God cannot 
be tempted with evils, neither tempteth he any man.''f God, then, 
did not tempt Jesus ; though His Spirit conducted him thither to be 
tempted, and that, too, " by the devdl," or the enemy. 

This enemy witliin the human nature is the mind of the flesh, 
which is enmity against God ; it is not subject to His law, neither 
indeed can be.^ The commandment of God, which is " holy, just and 
good," being so restrictive of the propensities, which in purely 
animal men display themselves with uncontrolled violence, makes 
them appear in their true colours. These turbulent propensities the 
apostle styles " sin in the flesh," of which it is full ; hence, he also 
terms it " sinful flesh." This is human nature ; and the evil in it, 
made so apj^arent by the law of God, he personifies as " 'pre-eminently 
A SINNER," KctO vTrepiooXr]v o/zaprwXoc.'' This is the accuser, adversary, 
and calumniator of God, whose strong hold is the flesh. It is the 
devil and satan within the human nature ; so that " when a man is 
tempted, he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." If a man 
examine himself, he will perceive within him something at work, 
craving after things which the law of God forbids. The best of men 
are conscious of this enemy within them. It troubled the apostle so 
much, that he exclaimed, "0, wretched man that I am ! who shall 
deliver me from the body of this death,"' or this mortal body? He 
thanked God that the Lord Jesus Christ would do it ; that is, as he 
had himself been delivered from it, b}^ God raising him from the dead 
by His Spirit.^' 

Human nature, or " sinful flesh," has thi-ee principal channels 
through which it displays its waywardness against the law of God. 

« Heb. V. 8-9. ^ Heb. iv. 15. « Luke iv. 1. d Mark i. 12. « Matt. iv. 1. / James i. 13. 
3 Rom. viii. 7. ''Rom. vii. 12, 13, 17, 18. Averse 24. i Rom. viii. 11. 



70 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

These are expressed by " tlie lust of tlie flesh, the lust of the eyes, 
and the pride of hfe." All that is in the world stands related to 
these points of our nature ; and there is no temptation that can be 
devised, but what assails it in one, or more, of these three particulars. 
The world without is the seducer, which finds in all animal men, 
unsubdued by the law and testimon}^ of God, a sympathizing and 
friendly principle, ready at all times to eat of its forbidden fruit. 
This sinful nature we inherit. It is our misfortune, not our crime, 
that we possess it. We are only blameworthy when, being supplied 
with the power of subduing it, we permit it to reign over us. This 
power resides in " the testimony of God " believed ; so that we "are 
kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation."" This 
testimon}^ ought to dwell in us as it dwelt in the Lord Jesus ; so that, 
as with the shield of faith, the fiery assaults of the world may be 
quenched^ by a " thus it is written," and a " thus saith the Lord." 

Jesus was prepared by the exhaustion of a long fast, for an 
appeal to the desire of his flesh for food. Hunger, it is said, will 
break through stone walls. " He was hungr3^" At this crisis, "the 
Tempter came to him." Who he was does not appear. Perhaps, 
Paul refers to him, saying, " Satan himself is transformed into an 
angel of light"'' Some one " came to him " who was his adversary, 
and who desired his ruin ; or, at least, acted the part of one on the 
same principle that the adversary was permitted to put the fidelity of 
Job to the proof. The trial of this eminent son of God, was perhaps 
recorded as an illustration of the temptation of the Son of God, even 
Jesus, to whom " there was none like in the earth, a perfect and 
upright man, one that feared God, and eschewed evil."'' From his 
birth to his baptism in the Jordan, he was faultless. But in the words 
of Satan concerning Job, " Did Jesus fear God for nought ? Had 
not God made a hedge about him ? " Yes ; God was his defence : 
and " in keeping his testimony there is great reward." But, the 
adversar}^ calumniated Jesus, in suggesting that his obedience to God 
had been prompted by mercenary motives. He " feared,"'' not simply 
for what he should get, but because of his love for his Father's 
character as revealed in the divine testimonies. The adversary affected 
to disbelieve this ; and to suppose that, if God would just leave him 
in the position of any other man, he would distrust him ; and eat of 
the world's forbidden fruit, by embracing all it would afford him. 
Thus, the adversary ma}'' be supposed to have moved the Lord to 
permit him to pnt the fidelity of Jesus to the test. God, therefore, 
allowed the experiment to be tried ; and by His spirit sent him into 
the wilderness for the purpose. So the adversary went forth from the 
presence of the Lord, and came to him there. 

Having arrived at the crisis when Jesus was suffering from the 
keenest hunger, the adversary assumed the character of an angel, or 
messenger of light to him. Being acquainted with " the law and the 
testimony," for which he knew Jesus had a profound regard, he 
adduced it in support of his suggestions. He invited him to gratify 
the cravings of the flesh by helping himself. He was God's son ; 

« 1 Pet. i. 5. i Ephes. vi. 16. « 2 Cor. xi. 14. ^ Job. i. 8. « Heb. v. 7. 



THE TEMPTATIOX OF JESUS. 71 

but then liis Fatlier seemed to have abandoned him ; why not there- 
fore use the power he possessed, whose presence in him was oE itself 
a proof of God's approval o£ its exercise, and "command that the 
stones be made bread ? " Bat Jesus disregarded the reasoning ; and 
set it aside by " It is loritben, Man shall not live by bread alone, but 
by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."* 

Failing in this, the scene of the temptation was then removed to 
" the pinnacle of the temple ; " and, as Jesus fortified himself by the 
word, the adversary determined to be even with him ; and in appeal- 
ing to the pride of life, so strong in the nature laid upon him, to 
strengthen himself with the testimony likewise. '' If thou be the Son 
of God, as thou proudly assumest to be, cast thyself down : for it is 
toritten, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee : and they 
shall bear thee up in their hands, lest at any time thou dash thy foot 
against a stone."^ But Jesus met him with "Again, it is loi-itten. 
Thou slialt not tempt the Lord thy God."" 

Lastly, the scene was shifted to a lofty mountain. From this 
position, by the power granted him, he showed Jesus " all the 
kingdoms of the world," visible from that elevation ; " and the glory 
of them." He knew that Jesus was destined to possess them all; 
but that he was also to obtain them through suffering. Jesus knew 
this, too. Now, as the flesh dislikes suffering, the tempter proposed 
to gratify the desire of his eyes by giving him all he saw on the eas}^ 
condition of doing homage to him as the god of the world. " All 
this power, said he, will I give thee, and the glory of them; for that 
is delivered to me ; and to whomsoever I will, I give it. If tliou 
tlierefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. "'^ Bat Jesus resisted 
the enticement ; and said, " Get thee hence adversary : for it is 
luritten, Thou shalt worship the Lord, thy God, and him only shalt thou 
serve." " Having ended all the temptation he departed from him for 
a season.^' " And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. 

In this manner, then, was he put to the proof in all things 
according to the likeness of his nature to ours, but without trans- 
gression. He believed not this angel of light'' and power, and would 
have none of his favours. He preferred the grace of God with suffering, 
to the gratification of his flesh with all the pomp and pageantry of 
this vain and transitory world. Its " glory " is indeed delivered to 
the adversary of God, his people, and his truth ; and to whomsoever 
he wills he gives it. The knowledge of this truth ought to deter 
ev3ry righteous man from seeking after it ; or even accepting it, when 
offered upon conditions derogatory to the truth of God. And, if 
those who possess it, such as kings, priests, nobles, &c., were what 
they pretend to be, they would follow Jesus, and Paul's examples, 
and renounce them all. Christianity in high places, is Christ falling 
down before the adversary ; and doing homage to him for the honour, 
riches, and power of the world. What fellowship hath Christ with 
Belial ? Certainly none. 

If the principles upon which the temptation of the Lord Jesus was 
permitted, be understood, the necessity of putting the first Adam to 

« Dent. viii. 3. ?> Psalm xci. 11, 12. " Deut. vi. 16. f^Luke iv. 6, 7. ^ Gal. i. 8. 



72 EUDIMENTS OF THE WOELD. 

the proof will be readily perceived. Would lie retain his integrity, 
if placed in a situation of trial ? Or, would he disbelieve God and 
die ? The Lord God well knew what the result would be ; and had 
made all necessary provision for the altered circumstances, which He 
foresaw would arise. His knowledge, however, of what would be, 
did not necessitate it. He had placed all things in a provisional state. 
If the man maintained his integrity, there was the Tree of Lives as 
the germ of a superior order of things ; but, if he transgressed, then 
the natural and animal system woald continue unchanged ; and the 
spiritualization of the earth and its population, be deferred to a future 
period. 

God's knowledge of what a man's character will be, does not cause 
Him to exempt him from trial. He rewards and punishes none upon 
foregone conclusions. He does not say to this man, " I know you are 
certain to turn out a reprobate, therefore I will punish you for what 
you would do " ; nor does He say to another, " I know thee that thou 
wouldst do well all the days of thy life : therefore, I will promote thee 
to glory and honour, without subjecting thee to the tribulation of the 
world." His princi]3le is to recompense men according to what they 
have done,, not for what they would do. Thus he dealt with the Two 
Adams ; and with Israel : to whom Moses says, " The Lord thy God 
led thee these forty years in the wilderness to humble thee, and to 
prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldest 
keep His commandments, or no."" And thus also the Lord Jesus 
treated Judas. He knew he was a thief, and would betray him ; yet 
he trusted him with the bag, and made no difference betw^een him and 
the rest, until his character was revealed. The Lord knew what was 
in the heart of Israel, and whether they would obey him ; but lie 
subjected them to such a trial as would cause them to reveal them- 
selves in their true character, and thereby justify him in his conduct 
towards them. With these remarks, then, by way of preface, I shall 
now proceed to the further exposition of things connected wdth this 
subject in the Mosaic account. And first of 

THE SERPENT. 

" It was more subtle than any beast of the field." 

The Serpent ^vas one of "' the living things that moved upon the 
earth," and which the Lord God pronounced "very good." Moses 
says, it was more subtle, or shrew^d, than any of the creatures the 
Lord God had made. It w£«s, probably, because of this quality of 
shrewdness, or quickness of perception, that Adam named it nachash ; 
which is rendered by cpaKO)^ in the Xew Testament, from hpKa)p.ai io 
see ; as, hpanovra rov ocpiv rov ap^diov,thc Dracjon, the old seiyentJ' It 
was, doubtless, the chief of the serpent tribe, as it is styled ''the'' 
serpent ; and, seeing that it was afterwards condemned to go u]3on its 
belly as a part of its sentence, it is j)robable, it was a winged-serpent 
in the beginning ; fiery, but afterwards deprived of the power of 
flight, and made to move as at present. 

« Dent. viii. 2. '' Dev. xx. 2. 



IHE SUBTLETY OF THE SERPENT. 73 

Its subtlety, or quickness of perception by eye and ear, and skil- 
fulness in the use ot" theni (Trayovpyia),^ was a part of the goodness of 
its nature. It was not an evil quality by any means ; for Jesus 
exhorts his disciples to "be icise as the serpents ; and unsophisticated 
[aKEpaioi) as the doves." This quality of shrewdness, or instinctive 
wisdom, is that Avhicli principal^ strikes us in all that is said about 
it. It was an observant spectator of what was passing around it in 
the garden, since the Lord God had planted it eastward in Eden. It 
had seen the Lord God and His companion Elohim. He had heard 
their discourse. He was acquainted with the existence of the Tree of 
Knowledge, and the Tree of Lives ; and knew that the Lord God 
had forbidden Adam and his wife to eat of the good and evil fruit ; 
or so much as to touch the tree. He was aware from what he had 
heard, that the Elohim knew what good and evil was experimentally ; 
and that in this particular, Adam and Eve were not so wise as they. 
But, all this knowledge was shut up in his own cranium, from which 
it could never have made its exit, had not the Lord God bestowed 
u]3on it the power of expressing its thoughts in speech. 

And what use should we naturally expect such a creature would 
make of this faculty ? Such an one, certainty, as its cerebral consti- 
tution would enable it to manifest. It was an intellectual, but not a 
moral, creature. It had no " moral sentiments." No part of its 
brain was appropriated to the exercise of benevolence, veneration, 
conscientiousness, and so forth. To speak phrenologically, it was 
destitute of these organs ; having only " intellectual faculties " and 
" propensities." Hence, its cerebral mechanism, under the excitation 
of external phenomena, would only develop, what I would term, an 
animal intellectuality. Moral, or spiritual, ideas would make no 
impression upon its mental constitution ; for it was incapable from its 
formation of responding to them. It would be physically impossible 
for it to reason in harmony with the mind of God ; or with the mind 
of a man, whose reasoning was regulated by divinely enlightened 
moral sentiments. Its wisdom would be that of the untutored savage 
race, whose " sentiments " by the desuetude of ages, had become as 
nothing. In short, we should expect that, if the faculty of speech 
were bestowed upon it, it would make just such a use of it, as Moses 
narrates of the serpent in the garden of Eden. Its mind was purely 
and emphatically a " Carnal Mind," of a more shrewd description 
than that of any of the inferior creatures. It was " very good ; " bat, 
when he undertook to converse upon things too high for him ; to 
speak of what he had seen and heard ; and to comment upon the law 
of the Lord, he lost himself in his dialogisms, and became the 
inventor of a. lie. 

Thus prepared, he commenced a conversation with the woman. 
"Yea," said he, as though he were familiar with the saying, "hath 
God said. Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden ? " In this 
manner he spoke, as if he had been pondering over the matter to 
find out the meaning of things ; but, not being able to make any- 
thing of it, he invited her attention inquiringly. She replied, " We 

« 2 Cor. xi. 2. 



74 EUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden : but of the fruit of 
the tree in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat 
of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." This was enunciating 
"the law of the spirit of life," or the truth; for "the law of God is 
the truth."" Had she adhered to the letter oE this, she would have 
been safe. But the Serpent began to intellectualize ; and, in so doing 
" abode not in the truth ; because there was no truth in him." When 
lie may be speaking the falsehood (oray Xa\?7 -o -ipevcog) he speaks out 
of his own "'' reasonings (e/c rojv iciojy XaXei). He could not comprehend 
the moral obligation necessitating obedience to the divine law; for 
there was nothing in him that responded to it. Hence, says Jesus, 
" There was no truth in him." 

This, however, was not the case with Eve. There was truth in 
her ; but she also began to intellectualize at the suggestion of the 
Serpent; and from his reasonings to doubt, and finally to conclude, 
that the Lord God did not mean exactly what He said. This was an 
error of which all the world is guilty to this day. It admits that God 
has spoken ; that He has ^promulgated laws ; that He has made 
promises ; and that He has said, " He that believeth the gospel, and is 
baptized, shall be saved; but hethat believeth not shall be condemned." 
All this professors admit in theory ; while, as in the case of Eve, in 
practice they deny it. They say He is too kind, too loving, too 
merciful to act according to a rigid construction of the word ; for if 
He did, multitudes of the good and pious, and excellent of the earth, 
would be condemned. This is doubtless true. Sceptics, however, of 
this class should remember that they only are " the salt of the earth " 
who delight in the law of the Lord, and do it. Every sect has its 
" good and pious " ones, who are thought little or nothing of by adverse 
denominations. The law of God is the only true standard of goodness 
and piety ; and men may depend upon it, attested by the examples in 
scripture, that they who treat Him as not meaning exactly what He 
says in His word, "make God a liar,"'= and are anything but good or 
pious in His esteem. 

Eve having repeated the law in the hearing of the Serpent, lie 
remarked that they should not surely die : " for," said he, " God doth 
know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your e_yes shall be opened, 
and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." The falsehood of 
this assertion consisted in the declaration, "Ye shall not surely die," 
when God had said, " Dying ye shall die." It was truth that God did 
know that in the day of their eating their eyes icould he opened ; and 
it was also true that they should then become as the Elohim, in the 
sense of knowing good and evil. This appears from the testimony 
of Moses, that when they had eaten " the eyes of them both were 
opened ;"'' and from the admission of God Himself, who said, " Behold, 
the man is become like one of us, to know good and evil."'' The 
Serpent's declaration was therefore an admixture of truth and 
falsehood, which so blended itself with what Eve knew to exist, that 
" she was beguiled by his shrewdness " from the simplicity of the law 
of God. 

« Psalm cxix. 142. ^ John viii. 44. ^ i Jolm v. 10. '' Gen. iii. 7. « Gen. iii. 22. 



HOW THE SERPENT KNEW. 75 

But how did the Serpent know that the Lord God knew that 
these things would happen to them in the day of their eating ? How 
came he to know anything about the gods, and their acquaintance 
with good and evil? And upon what grounds did he affirm they 
should not surely die? The answer is, by one of two ways — by 
ins-piration ; or, by 'observation. If we say by inspiration, then we 
make God the author of the lie ; but if we affirm that he obtained his 
knowledge by observation — by the use of his eyes and ears upon 
things transpiring around him — then we confirm the words of Moses, 
that he was the shrewdest of the creatures the Lord God had made. 
" Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree ?" This question 
shows that he was aware of some exceptions. He had heard of the 
Tree of Knowledge and of the Tree of lives, which were both in the 
midst of the garden. He had heard the Lord Elohim, and the other 
Elohim, conversing on their own exjDerience of good and evil ; and of 
the enlightenment of the man and woman in the same qualities through 
the eating of the Tree of Knowledge : and of their living for ever, if 
obedient, by eating of the Tree of Life. In reasoning upon these things, 
he concluded that, if they did eat of the forbidden fruit, they would 
not surel}^ die ; for they would have nothing more to do than to go 
and eat of the Tree of Life, and it would prevent all fatal consequences. 
Therefore he said, " Ye shall not surely die." The Lord God, it is 
evident, w^as apprehensive of the effect of this reasoning upon the mind 
of Adam and his wife ; for He forthwith expelled them from the 
garden, to prevent all possibility of access to the tree, lest they shoidd 
eat, and put on immortality in sin. 

The reasoning of the Serpent operated upon the woman by exciting 
the lust of her flesh, the lust of her eyes, and the pride of life. This 
appears from the testimony. An appetite, or longing for it, that she 
might eat it, was created within her. The fruit also was very beautiful. 
It hung upon the tree in a very attractive and inviting manner. " She 
saw^ that it was good for food, and that it was 'pleasant to the eyes.''' 
But there was a greater inducement still than even this. The flesh 
and the eyes would soon be satisfied. Her pride of life had been 
aroused by the suggestion that by eating it their eyes would be 
opened ; and that she would be "made wise "as the glorious IClohim 
she had so often seen in the garden. To become "as the gods ; " to 
know good and evil as they knew it — was a consideration too cogent 
to be resisted. She not only saw that it was good for food and pleasant to 
the eyes, but that it was "a tree to be desired as making one wise " as 
the gods ; therefore " she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat." Thus, 
as far as she was concerned, the transgression was complete. 

THE NATURE OF THE TRANSGRESSION. 

" The eyes of tlieni Tooth were opened, and they knew that they were naked." . 

The effect produced upon the woman by the eating of the forbidden 
fruit, was the excitation of the propensities. By the transgression 
of the law of God, she had placed herself in a state of sin ; 
in which she had acquired that maturity of feeling which is known 



76 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

to exist when females attain to womanhood. The Serpent's jDart had 
iDeen jDerformed in her deception; and sorely was she deceived. 
Expecting to be equal to the gods, the hitherto latent passions of her 
animal nature only were set free ; and though she now knew what 
evil sensations and impulses were, as they had done before her, she 
had failed in attaining to the pride of her life — an equality with them 
as she had seen them in their power and glory. 

In this state of animal excitation, she presented herself before the 
man, with the fruit so " pleasant to the eyes." Standing now in his 
presence, she became the tempter, soliciting him to sin. She became 
to him an " evil woman flattering with her tongue ; " " whose lips 
dropped as a honeycomb, and her mouth was smoother than oil." 
She found him " a young man void of understanding " like herself. 
We can imagine how " she caught him, and kissed him ; and with an 
impudent face, and her much fair speech, she caused him to yield." 
He accepted the fatal fruit, " and ate with her," consenting to her 
enticement, " not knowing that it was for his life ; " though God had 
said, transgression should surely be punished with death. As yet 
inexperienced in the certainty of the literal execution of the divine 
law, and depending upon the remedial efficacy of the Tree of Lives, 
he did not believ^e that he should surely die. ' He saw every thing 
delightful around him, and his beautiful companion with the tempting 
fruit ; and yet he was told that his eyes were., shut ! What wonderful 
things might he not see if his eyes were oj)ened. And to be " as the 
gods " too, " knowing good and evil," was not this a wisdom much to 
be desired ? The fair deceiver had, at length, succeeded in kindling in 
the man the same lusts that had taken possession of herself. His 
flesh, his eyes, and his pride of life, were all inflamed ; and he followed 
in her evil way " as a fool to the correction of the stocks." They had 
both fallen into unbelief. They did not believe God would do what 
He had promised. This was a fatal mistake. They afterwards found 
l:)y experience, that in their sin they had charged God falsely ; and 
that what He promises. He will certainly perform to the letter of His 
word. Thus, unbelief prepared them for disobedience ; and disobedi- 
ence separated them from God. 

As the Mosaic narrative gives an account of things natural, upon 
which things spiritual were afterwards to be established in word and 
substance ; the key to his testimony is found in ivhat actually exists. 
When, therefore, he tells us that the eyes of Adam and Eve were 
closed at first, in. that he says they were opened by sin, we have to 
examine ourselves as natural beings for the meaning of his words. 
Moses, indeed, informs us in what sense, or to what .phenomena, their 
eyes were closed, in saying, " They were both naked, the man and his 
wife, and they were not ashamed." If their eyes had been surrep- 
titiously opened, the}' would have been ashamed of standing before 
the Lord Elohim in a state of nudity ; and they would have had 
emotions towards one another, which would have been inconvenient. 
But, in their unsinning ignorance of the latent j)ossibilities of their 
nature, shame, which makes the subject of it fes^l as though he would 
hide himself in a nutshell, and be buried in the depths of the sea. 



THE NATURE OF THE TRANSGRESSIOX. 77 

found no place witliin them. They were unabashed : and had they 
been created with their eyes open, they would have been equally so 
at all times. But, seeing that their eyes were opened in connexion 
with, and as the consequence of doing what was forbidden, having 
" yielded their members servants to uncleanness, and to iniquit}^ uuto 
iniquity;" and their superior faculties being constituted susceptible 
of the feeling, they were ashamed ; and " the uncomely parts of the 
body " became " their shame ; " and from that time have been esteemed 
dishonourable, and invariably " hid." The inferior creatures have no 
such feeling as this, because they have never sinned : but the parents 
of Cain, in their transgression, having served themselves of the 
members they afterwards concealed, were deeply affected both with 
shame and fear ; and their posterity have ever since more or less 
partaken of it after the same form. 

Having transgressed the divine law, and " solaced themselves with 
loves," " the eyes o£ them both were opened " as the consequence ; and 
when opened, " they lineio that they were naked," which they did not 
comjorehend before. " ^y the law is the knowledge of sin," and " sin 
is the transgression of law ;" so, having transgressed the law, " they 
knew they were naked " without waiting for the Lord to reveal it to 
them, and to permit them the lawful use of one another in His own 
time. They were quite chagrined at the discovery they had made ; 
and sought to mitigate it by a contrivance of their own : so " they 
sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons." 

Although thus corporeally defended from mutual observation, the 
nakedness of their minds was still exposed. They heard the voice of 
the Elohim, which had now become terrible ; and they hid themselves 
from His presence amongst the trees. They had not yet learned, how- 
ever, that the Lord was not only a God at hand, but a God also afar 
off ; and that none can hide in secret places and He not see them ; 
for He fills both the heaven and the earth." Their concealment was 
ineffectual against the voice of the Lord, who called out to him, 
" Where art thou, Adam?" And he answered, "I heard thy voice in 
the garden, and I teas afraid, hecausel ic as naked ; and I hid myself." 
Adam's heart condemned him, therefore he lost his confidence before 
God.^ 

A GOOD, AND AN EVIL CONSCIENCE. 

The reader, by contemplating Adam and Eve in innocency, and 
afterwards in guilt, will perceive in the facts of their case the nature 
of a good conscience, and of an evil one. When the}^ rejoiced in "the 
answer of a good conscience," they were destitute of shame and fear. 
They could stand naked in God's presence unabashed ; and, instead of 
trembling at His voice, they rejoiced to hear it as the harbinger of 
good things. They were then pure and undefiled, being devoid of all 
conscience of sin. They were then of the truth, living in obedience 
to it as expressed in the law ; and therefore their hearts were assured 
before Him. No doubts and fears oppressed them then. But mark 
the change that afterguards came over them. When they lost their 

a Jer. xxiii. 23, 24. ^ 1 John iii. 19-22. 



/5 RUDOIENTS OF THE WORLD. 

good conscience, terror seized upon them at the voice of God, and 
siiame possessed their sonls ; and they sought to get out of His sight, 
and to remove as far from Him as possible. Now, what was the cause 
of this? There is but one answer that can be given, and that 
is — Sin. 

Sin, then, takes away " the answer of a good conscience towards 
God," and converts it into an evil conscience ; which maybe certainly 
known to exist, when the subject of it is ashamed of the truth, and 
harassed by " doubts and fears." They are ashamed of the truth, 
who, being enlightened, feel themselves condemned ; or, being 
ignorant, apprehend it. Such, on account of unbelief, or of "a dead 
faith," may well be ashamed and afraid ; for to be ashamed of God's 
truth is to be ashamed of His wisdom and power. People of this 
description proscribe all conversation about the truth as unfashionable, 
and vulgar ; or as calculated to disturb the peace of the family circle : 
others again, make a great outcry against controversy as dangerous to 
religion ; as though God's truth could be planted in the hearts of 
men, already prepossessed by God's enemy, without controversy : 
others subjected to the timidity of sin, reduce every thing to opinion, 
and inculcate '' charity " ; not that they are more liberal and kind 
than other people ; but that they fear lest their own nakedness may be 
discovered, and " men see their shame " : while another class of 
bashful professors cry out, " Disturb not that which is quiet," which is 
a capital maxim for a rotten cause, especially where its subversion 
would break tip all " vested interests," and pecuniary emoluments. So 
it is ; while " the righteous are bold as a lion, the wicked flee when 
no man pursueth." Sinners, however "pious " they may be reputed 
to be, are invariably cowards ; they are ashamed of a bold stand for 
their own profession!; and afraid of an independent and impartial 
examination of the law and testimony of God. 

Understanding then, that sin, or the transgression of God's law, 
evinced by doubts, fears, and shamefacedness, is the morbid principle 
of an evil conscience, what is the obvious indication to be fulfilled in 
its removal ? The answer is, hlot out the sin, and the conscience of 
the patient will be cured. The morbid phenomena will disappear, and 
" the answer of a good conscience toward God "" remain. From the 
nature of things, it is obvious that the sinner cannot cure himself ; 
though superstition has taught him to attempt it by fastings, and 
l^enances, and all " the voluntary humility and vain deceit," inculcated 
by " the blind." Adam and Eve vainly imagined they could cover 
their oivn sin, and efface it from divine scrutiny ; but the veiy clumsy 
device they contrived, betrayed the defilement of their consciences. 
Their posterity have not learned wisdom by the failure of their 
endeavour ; but, to this day, they are as industriously engaged in 
inventing cloaks for their evil consciences, as were their first parents, 
when stitching fig-leaves together to cover their shame. So true is it 
that, though God made man upright, he hath sought out many inven- 
tions.'' But, after all the patching, and altering, and scouring, they 
are but like " the filthy gannents " taken from the high priest, 

a 1 Pet. iii. 21. ^ Eccles. vii. 29, 



WHx\T GOD REQUIRES OF MAN". 79 

Joshua ;" to which, all the iniquity laid upon him, adhered with the 
inveterac}^ of a leprous plague. 

Men have not yet learned the lesson, that all they are called upon 
by God to do is to believe His word and obey His laics. He requires 
nothing more at their hands than this. If they neither believe nor 
do, or believe but do not obey, they are evil doers, and at enmity with 
Him. He asks men for actions, not words ; for He will judge them 
" according to their works " in the light of His law, and not according 
to their suppositious feelings and traditions. The reason why He will 
not permit men to prescribe for their own moral evils is because He is. 
the physician, they the lepers ; He their sovereign, they the rebels, 
against His law. It is His prerogative, and His alone, to dictate the 
teims of reconciliation. Man has offended God. It becomes him, 
therefore, to surrender unconditionally ; and, with the humility and 
teachableness of a child, to receive with open heart and grateful 
feelings, whatever in the wisdom, and justice, and benevolence of God 
He may condescend to prescribe. 

Until they do this, they may preach in His name ;^ make broad 
their phylacteries ;" sound trumpets in the synagogues and in the 
streets f make long .prayers in public ;" disfigure their countenances 
with grimace that they may appear to fast -J build churches ; compass 
sea and land to make proselytes -.'J found hospitals ; and fill the world 
with their benevolencies :■ — all is reducible to mere fig-leaf indention, 
as a substitute for " the righteousness of God." " Blessed are they 
whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered ;"'' but this 
blessedness came not upon Adam, nor upon any of his posterity, by 
garments of their own device. The Lord's covering for sin is " a 
change of raiment," even " white raiment," which He counsels men to 
buy, "that they may be clothed, and that the shame of their nakedness 
do not appear."' He alone can furnish it. His price is that men 
should believe, and put it on. 

THE CARNAb MIND. 

" The thinking of the flesh is enmity against Grod." 

When the Lord God bestowed the faculty of speech upon the 
Serpent, He enabled it to give utterance to its thoughts. The possession 
of this power did not, however, confer upon it moral accountability. 
This depends on a different constitution of " the flesh." Where no 
" moral sentiments " exist as a part of " the flesh," or brain, there is 
no ability in the creature to render an account for its aberrations from 
the requirements of moral, or spiritual, institutions. Speech only 
enabled it to utter the thinkings of its unsentimentalized intellect. It 
spoke like Balaam's ass, under the impidse of the sensations excited 
by what it had seen and heard. The thinkings of its flesh could not 
ascend to faith, being destitute of the organic ability to believe ; there- 
fore its speech could express only fleshly thoughts. Faith was too 
high an attainment for it. The light of God's law could not shine 

a Zech. iii. 3-4. ^ Matt. vii. 21-23. « Matt, xxiii. 5, 6, 7. ^ Matt. vi. 1-4. « verse 5-7 : 
xxiii. 14. / Matt. vi. 16-18. 9 Matt, xxiii. 15. '' Rom. iv. 7. ^ Rev. iii. 18. 



80 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

into it. Like all tlie inferior animals, it was a creature of mere sensa- 
tion ; and coald utter only sentences formed of combinations resulting 
from the imjDressions of sensible objects transmitted to its sensorium 
by the five senses ; it transcended them, however, in being more 
observant and reasoning than they. 

What it had done, and not what it intended to do, was made the 
ground of the Serpent's condemnation. " Because thou hast done this,'' 
said the Lord God, " thou art cursed above all cattle, &c." It was 
incapable of moral intention. It did not intend to deceive ; but it did 
deceive ; therefore, it was a deceiver. It did not intend to lie ; but it 
did lie ; therefore, it was a liar and the father of a lie. It did not 
intend to cause the woman's death ; but still it brought her under 
sentence of death ; therefore, it was a murderer : and became the 
spiritual father of all intentional liars, deceivers, unbelievers, and man- 
killers, who are styled " the Serpent's seed." 

The Serpent had propensities and intellect, and so had the woman ; 
but her mental constitution differed from his, in having " moral senti- 
ments " superadded to her propensities and intellect. By the senti- 
ments she was made a morally accountable being; capable 6f believing, 
and able to control and direct her other faculties in their apiDlication. 
The propensities enable a creature to jDropagate its species, take care 
of its young, defend itself against enemies, collect food, and so forth : 
intellect enables it to do these things, for tlie gi-atification of its sensa- 
tions ; but when, in addition to these, a being is endowed with the 
wsentiments of conscientiousness, hope, veneration, benevolence, wonder. 
&c., it possesses a spiritual, or sentimental, organization, which makes 
it capable of reflecting as from a mirror, the likeness and glory of 
God. The appropriate sphere of the propensities is on things sensual 
and fleshly ; while that of spiritual, or sentimentalized, intellect, is 
on " the things of the spirit of God." In the mental constitution of 
man, God designed that the sentiments, enlightened hy His truth, 
should have the ascendancy, and preside over, and govern his actions. 
Under such an arrangement, the thoughts of the man would have 
resulted from spiritual thinking as opposed to the thoughts of the 
inferior creatures, which are purely the thinking of the flesh. Where 
the truth has possession of the sentiments, settin.o: them to work and 
so forming the thoughts, it becomes the law of God to them ; which 
the apostle styles "the law of his mind;'' and because it is written 
there through the hearing of " the law and the testimony," which 
came to the prophets and apostles through the spirit, he terms it, 
''the lata of the sinrit ""■ inscribed "on fleshly tables of the 
lieart ; "'' and " the law of the spirit of life," because, while obeyed, 
it confers a right to eternal life. 

But in the absence of this law and testimony, the " moral senti- 
ments " are as incapable of directing a man aright, as though he wero 
all intellect, or all propensities. By a right direction, I mean, accord- 
ing to the mind of God, The sentiments are as blind as the propen- 
sities when intellect is unenlightened by divine revelation. The trutli 
of this is illustrated by the excesses into which mankind has plunged 

« Rom. vii. 23 : viii. 2. ^2 Cor. iii. 3. 



THE CARNAL MIND. ' 81 

in the name of religion. Mohammedanism, Romanism, Paganism, 
and the infinite varieties of Protestantism, are all the result of the 
co-workings of the intellect, and sentiments, under the impulse of the 
j3ropensities. They are all the thinkings of the flesh, predicated on 
ignorance, or misconception, of the truth. Hence,- they are either 
•altogether false ; or, like the dialogisms of the shrewd Serpent, a 
clams}^ mixture of truth and error. 

The Carnal Mind is an expression used by Paul ; or rather, it is 
the translation of words used by him, in his epistle to the Romans. 
It is not so explicit as tlie original. The words he wrote are 
TO (ppovqjjia ri]Q crapKOQ the thinking of the flesh. In this plirase, he inti- 
mates to us, that the flesh is the thinking suhstance, that is, the brain ; 
which, in another place, he terms " the fleshly tablet of the heart.'' 
The kind of thinking, therefore, depends upon the conformation of this 
■organ. Hence, the more elaborate and perfect its mechanism, the more 
precise and comprehensive the thought ; and vice vzrsa. It is upon 
this principle such a diversity of mental manifestation is observable 
among men and other animals ; but after all, how diverse soever they 
may be, they are all referable to one and the same thing — the thinking 
of the flesh, lohcse elaborations are excited by the propensities, and the 
sensible phenomena of the loorld. 

Now, the law of Grod is given, that the thinking of the flesh, 
instead of being excited by the propensities within, and the world 
without, may be conducted according to its direction. So long as 
Adam and Eve yielded to its guidance, they werehappy and contented. 
Their thoughts were the result of right thinking, and obedience was 
the consequence. But when they adopted the Serpent's reasonings as 
their own, these being at variance with the truth, caused an " enmity " 
•against it in their thinkings, which is equivalent to " enmity against 
God." When their sin was perfected, the propensities, or lusts, having 
been inflamed, became " a law in their members ; " and because it was 
implanted in their flesh by transgression, it is styled, " the law of 
sin ; " and death being the wages of sin, it is also termed, " the law 
of sin and death ; " but by philosophy, " the law of nature." 

The thinking of the flesh, uninfluenced by the ameliorating agency 
•of divine truth, is so degenerating in its effects, that it reduces man to 
■savagism. There is nothing elevating or ennobling in fleslxly 
thoughts ; on the contrary, they tend to jol^ysical deterioration and 
'death ; for " to be carnally minded is death ; but to be spiritually 
minded is life and ]3eace."" If ferocious creatures become tame, or 
civilized, it is the result of what may be termed spiritual influences ; 
wdiich, operating from without the animal, call into exercise its higher 
powers, by which the more turbulent are subdued, or kept in check. 
It is unheard of that wild beasts, or savage men, ever tamed or 
civilized themselves ; on the contrary, the law in the members when 
uncontrolled in its mental operations is so vicious in its influence as to 
•endanger the continuance of the race. If, therefore, God had aban- 
doned Adam and his posterity to the sole guidance of the newly- 
developed propensities, the earth would long ere this liave been 

« Rom. vi:i. 6. 



82 RUDI.MEXTS OF THE WORLD. 

peopled by a population not a whit above the aborigines of New 
Holland, or the savage tribes of Africa. Notwithstanding the 
antagonism established between His law and the flesh, by which a 
wholesome conflict has been maintained in the world, a vast projDortion 
of its people are " blind of heart " and " past feeling," in consequence 
of their intellect and sentiments having fallen into moral desuetude ;; 
or of being exercised upon the reasonings of the flesh, as were Eve's 
upon the speculations of the Serpent. 

The unilluminated thinking of the flesh gives birth to the "works 
of the flesh ; which are, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lascivious- 
ness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife,, 
dissensions, sects, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such 
like."* Unchecked by the truth and judgments of God, the world 
would have been composed solely of such characters. Indeed, not- 
withstanding all His interference to save it from the ruinous 
consequences of its vicious enmity against His law, it seems to have- 
attained a state of immorality in the apostolic age well nigh tO' 
reprobation. " They were," says the apostle, " without excuse ; because 
that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were 
thankful ; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish 
heart loas darkened. Professing themselves to be wise (or philosophers) 
they became fools, and changed the glory of the Incorruptible God 
into an image made like to corruiDtible men, and to birds, and four- 
footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gaiK them 
up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour 
their own bodies between themselves : who changed the truth of God 
into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the 
Creator, who is blessed for ever. For this cause, God gave them up 
unto vile affections ; working that which is unseemly, and receiving 
in themselves that recomjDense of their error which was meet. And 
even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave- 
them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not 
convenient ; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wicked- 
ness, covetousness, maliciousness ; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, 
malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, desjDiteful, proud, 
boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without 
understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable,, 
unmerciful."'' 

Such is the carnal mind, or thinking of the flesh, as illustrated by 
the works of the flesh : a hideous deformity, whose conception is 
referable to the infidelity and disobedience of our first ])arents ; by 
whom "sin entered into the world and death by sin."'' It \^ the 
serpent mind; because it was through his untruthful reasonings 
believed, that a like mode of thinking to his was generated in the 
heart of Eve and her husband. The seed sown there by the Serpent 
was corruptible seed. Hence the carnal mind, or thinking of the flesh,, 
unenlightened by the truth, is the serpent in the flesli. It was for this 
reason that Jesus styled his enemies " serpents, and a generation of 
vij)ers."'' Their actions all emanated from the serpent-thinking of the 

« Gal. V. 19. ^ Rom. i. 20-31. <^ Rom. v. 12. '' Matt, xxiii. 33. 



SIN IN THE FLESH. 83 

flesh, whicli displayed " a wisdom not from above," which was at once 
"earthly, sensual, and devilish;" as opposed to that which " is from 
above," and which is " fi7'st pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to 
be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and 
without hypocrisy."" 

The carnal mind, or serpent in the flesh, is the subject of a two- 
fold manifestation — namely, individually and collectively. An 
individual manifestation is more or less observable in persons who 
"mind the things of the flesh," or " earthly things."^ To do this is 
to be ''after the flesh,'' and "in the flesh f of whom it is testified, 
" they cannot please God." By a figure, sin is put for the serpent, the 
effect for the cause ; seeing that he was the suggest er of unbelief and 
disobedience to man, by whom it entered into the world. Hence, the 
idea of the serpent in the flesh is expressed by "sin in the flesh; " 
which was "condemned in the flesh" when Jesus was crucified for, 
or on account of, sin, " in the likeness of sinful flesh." In the 
anrmal man there dwelleth no good thing. The apostle affirms this 
of himself, considered as an unenlightened son of the flesh. " In me, 
that is, in my flesh," says he, " dwelleth no good thing." Hence, 
whatever good was in him, did not originate from the thinking of the 
flesh excited by the propensities, and traditions of Gamaliel ; but from 
"the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus;" that is, from the 
i.ifluence of "the testimony of God" concerning " the things of the 
kingdom and name of Jesus Christ," upon " the fleshly tablet of 
Lis heart," most assuredly believed. Submission to this " made me 
free," says he, "from the law of sin and death." This attests the truth 
of the Lord's saying, that " if the truth made a man free, he should 
be free indeed." Sin, though still in the flesh, should no more reign 
in his mortal body, nor have dominion over him. 

If it were not for the law, or truth, of God, we should not know 
what sin is ; for, says the apostle, "I had not known sin, but by the 
law ;" "for without the law, sin is dead.'' If a man committed theft, 
or adultery, or any other thing, he would not know whether he did 
right or wrong in God's esteem, if God had not said they shall not be 
done. The lower animals steal, kill, and obey their propensities uncon- 
trolled ; but, in so doing, they do not sin, because God has made them 
mth the ability and disposition so to do, and has not forbidden them. 
Wrong consists not in any particular act of which we are capable ; but 
in that act being contrary to the letter and spirit of the divine 
testimony : in other words, right is the doing of the will of God. 
Hence, if we saw a man bowing down before an image of the Virgin 
Mary, which is death by His law, and He commanded us to kiU him, 
we should do wrong to refuse, although He has said, " Thou shalt not 
kill." Men have lost sight of this truth. They know not, or seem 
not to know, that the only true standard of right and wrong, truth 
and error, is the divine law. Hence, they inflict upon themselves and 
one another all sorts of pains and penalties, making their lives 
miserable, because of nonconformity to standards of faith and morals, 
which know no other paternity than the serpent-thinking of sinful flesh. 

a James iii. 15, 17. ^ Rom. viii. 5 ; Phil. iii. 18, 19 ; Col. iii. 2 ; 1 John ii. 15. 



84 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

Sin was in the world from the fall to the giving of the law through 
Moses. But it did not appear to be sin to those who obeyed its im- 
pulses ; because, there being no such law as the Mosaic, " the sons of 
God " did not know when they might have erred. They were not held 
accountable to any future retribution for doing things, which under 
Moses' law were punishable with death. They were amenable only to 
" the way of the Lord," even as the disciples of Jesus are at this day. 
This required them to walk by faith in the nurture and admonition of 
the Lord, whose love was shed abroad in their hearts b^^ the testimony 
they believed." 

The Serpent in the flesh shows itself in individuals in all the 
colours of its skin. It manifests itself in all the deceptions men prac- 
tice upon themselves and one another. Its most insidious and 
dangerous manifestations emanate from the pulpit, and ecclesiastical 
thrones. In these, the Serpent j^resents himself to mankind, presump- 
tuously entertaining them with things he does not understand. From 
thence he delights them with the assurance of wisdom upon principles 
in harmony with their nature. " God doth not mean," saith he, 
" exactly what he says. Trouble not your consciences about the 
letter of His word. He knows, that the circumstances in which you 
are placed prevent a rigid construction o£ it. Besides, the times are 
changed, and the world is better than it used to be. He takes the 
will for the deed. The spirit is everything; the letter is nothing; 
for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. Eat, then, and drink, 
and be merry. Be diligent in business, fervent in the cause of your 
church, serving your clergy ; and when you die, ye shall be as gods in 
the elysian fields ! " 

But the serpent in the flesh manifests itself in all the high places 
of the earth. It obtrudes itself upon all occasions, and through all 
the channels of human life. Popes, cardinals, and priests ; bishops, 
ministers, and deacons ; emperors, kings, and presidents ; with all 
who sustain them, and execute their behests, are but the fleshly media 
through which the thinking of the flesh finds expression. They arc 
*' the high things that exalt themselves against the hnowledge of God," 
v/hich are to be cast down.'' They are faithless of this knowledge, 
v/hicli they make of none effect by their traditions ; and " whatsoever is 
not of faith is sin." My business will be to show what this knowledge 
is ; and, if it be found that I speak not according to " the law and the 
testimony," it will be because there is no light in me ; and that, like 
them, I speak my own thoughts as of the flesh, and not according to 
the gospel of the kingdom of God. 

As I have remarked before, sin is personified by Paul as " pre- 
eminently a sinner ; " and by another apostle, as " the Wicked 
One."" In this text, he says, " Cain was of that Wicked One, and slew 
liis brother." There is precision in this language which is not to be 
disregarded in the interj)retation. Cain was of the Wicked One ; that 
is, he was a son of sin — of the serpent- sin, or original transgression. 
The Mosaic narrative of facts is interrupted at the end of the sixth 
verse of the third chapter. The fact passed over there, though 

« Rom. V. ]3. ^ 2 Cor. x. 5. « 1 John iii. 12. 



WICKED JEWS " OF THEIR FAIHER THE DEVIL." 85 

implied in the seventh, verse, is plainly stated in the first verse 
of the third chapter. These texts conjoined read thus : " And Eve 
,fi:ave unto her husband, and he did eat with her. And Adam knew 
Eve his wife ; and she conceived. And the eyes of them both were 
opened, and they knew that they were naked." Now, here was a 
conception in sin, the originator of which was the Serpent. When, 
therefore, in the " set time " aftei-wards, " Eve bare Cain," though pro- 
created by Adam, he was of the Serpent, seeing that he suggested the 
transgression which ended in tlie conception of Cain. In this way, 
sin in the flesh being put for the Serpent, Cain was of that Wicked 
One, the pre-eminent sinner, and the first-born of the Serpent's 
seed. 

Now, they who do the works of the flesh are the children of the 
Wicked One, or of sin in the flesh ; on the hke principle that those 
Jews only were the children of Abraham who did the works of 
Abraham. But they did not the deeds of Abraham, but evil deeds. 
They were liars, hypocrites, and murderers : therefore, said Jesus, 
" Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye are 
willing to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not 
in the truth, because there is no truth in him."'' We have seen 
in what sense this is affirmed of the Serpent, the unaccountable and 
irresponsible author of sin. Ever}^ son of Adam is " conceived in 
sin and shapen in iniquity," and therefore "sinful flesh;" on the 
principle that " what is born of the flesh is flesh." If he obey the 
impulses of his flesh, he is like Cain, " of the Wicked One ;" but if 
he believe the " exceeding great and precious promises of God," 
obey the law of faith, and put to death unlawful obedience to his 
propensities, he becomes a son of the living Grod, and a brother and 
joint-heir of the Lord Jesus Christ of the glory to be revealed in the 
last time. 

But serpent-sin, being a constituent of human nature, is treated 
of in the scripture in the aggregate, as well as in its individual mani- 
festations. The " lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride 
of life," generated in our nature by sin, and displayed in all the 
children of sin, taken in the aggregate constitute ''the ivorld,'' which 
stands opjDosed to God. Serpent-sin in the flesh is the god of the 
world, who possesses the glory of it. Hence, to overcome the world 
is to overcome the Wicked One ; because sin finds its expression in 
the things of the world. These things are the civil and ecclesiastical 
polities, and social institutions of the nations, which are all based 
upon " the wisdom that descendeth not from above "—the serpent- 
wisdom of the flesh. If this be admitted, it is easy to appreciate the 
full force of the saying, " The friendship of the world is enmity 
against God. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is 
the enemy of God."^ Let no one, then, who would have God's 
favour, seek the honour and glory of the world in Church or State ; for 
promotion in either of them can only be attained by sacrificing the 
principles of God's truth upon the altar of popular favour, or of princely 
patronage. Let no man envy men in place and power. It is their 

o John viii. 39, 44. ^ James iv. 4. 



86 RUDIMENTS OF TRE WORLD. 

misfortune, and will be their ruin ; and tlioagh many of them profess 
to be very pious, and to have great zeal for' religion ; yea, zeal as 
flaming as the scribes and pharisees of old, they are in friendship 
with the world, which in return heaps upon them its riches, and 
honour, and therefore they are the enemies of Grod. It is unnecessary 
to indicate them in detail. If the reader understand the scripture, he 
can easily discern them. Wherever the gospel of the kingdom is 
supplanted by sectarian theology, there is a strong hold of " the carnal 
mind, which is enmity against God ; for it is not subject to the law of 
God, neither indeed can be."" This is a rule to which there is no 
exception ; and the grand secret of that formality, coldness, and 
spiritual death, which are said to paralyze " the churches." They are 
rich in all things, but the truth ; and of that there is a worse than 
Egyptian scarcity. 

• THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD. 
"The prince of this world shall be cast out." 

Sin made flesh, whose character is revealed in the works of the 
flesh, is the Wicked One of the world. He is styled by Jesus 
o apxwv Tov Koa/jLov rovrov, the Prince of this world. Kosmos, rendered 
world in this phrase, signifies, that order of things constituted Qpon 
the basis of sin in the flesh, and styled the kingdom of Satan,^ as 
opposed to the kingdom of God : which is to be established upon the 
foundation of " the word made flesh " obedient . unto death. Incar- 
nated sin, and incarnated obedience, are the bases of the two hostile 
kingdoms of God, and of the adversary. The world is Satan's 
kingdom ; therefore it is, that " the saints," or people of God, both 
Israelites outwardly,'' and "Israelites indeed,"'^ are a dispersed and 
persecuted community. Satan's kingdom is the kingdom of sin. It 
is a kingdom in which " sin reigns in the mortal body," and thus has 
dominion over men. 

It is quite fabulous to locate it in a region of ghosts and 
hobgoblins, remote from, or under the earth, where Pluto reigns as 
" God of Hell." This notion is a j^art of the wisdom of those 
fleshly thinkers, who, as the apostle says, "professing themselves 
to be wise, became fools ; " a wisdom, too, which " God hath made 
foolishness "^ by " the light of the glorious gospel of Christ."-^ The 
kingdom of sin is among the living upon the earth ; and it is 
called the kingdom of Satan, because " all the power of the enemy," 
or adversary, of God and His people, is concentrated and incarnated 
in it. It is a kingdom teeming with religion, or rather, forms of 
superstition, all of which have sprung from the thinking of sinful 
flesh. This is the reason why men hate, or neglect, or disparage, the 
Bible. If the leaders of the peojDle were to speak honestly they 
would confess that they did not understand it. Their systems of 
divinity are the untoward thinkings of sinful flesh ; and they know that 
they cannot interpret the Bible intelligibly according to their princi- 

« Rom. viii. 7. ?' Matt. xii. 26. « Rom. i. ^8, 29 : ix. 6, 7. 'i John i. 47. 
e 1 Cor. i. 19, 20. / 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4, 6. 



THE BIBLE AGAINST CHRISTENDO?*!. 87 

pies. At all events they have not yet accomplished it. Hence, one 
•class have forbidden their people the use of the scriptures at all, and 
have placed it among prohibited books. Another class advocates 
them, not because it walks by the light of them, but because they 
hate the tyranny of Rome. These, in their public exhibitions, substitute 
their sermonizings for " reasoning out of the scriptures," and " expound- 
ing out of the law of Moses and the Prophets."" Thas they neglect 
the Bible, or use it only as a book of maxims and mottoes for their 
sermons ; which for the most part have as much to do with the subject 
treated of in the text, as with the science of gymnastics, or perpetual 
motion. 

But the carnal policy does not end here. The neglect of the 
preachers might be supplied by the searching of the scriptures by the 
people themselves. But this is discouraged by disparagements from 
the pulpit. The word is proclaimed to be "a dead letter";, the 
prophecies are said to be unintelligible ; the apocalypse incompre- 
hensible, and utterly bewildering ; that it is necessary to go to college 
to study divinity before it can be judiciously explained ; and so forth. 
The people, for whom I write, know this to be the truth. But, what 
is the English of all this ? It is, that the pulpit orators and news- 
paper scribes are consciously ignorant of " the sure word of prophecy " ; 
so that, in order to maintain their ascendancy, the}^ must repress the 
■enterprise of the people, lest they should become " wiser than their 
teachers " ; and find that they could do infinitely better without 
their services than with them, and thus their occupation would 
^^e gone. 

As for a college education in divinity qualifying boys for '' preach- 
ing the word,'' the absurdity of the conceit is manifest in the fact, that 
the " college-bred divines " are all at variance among themselves upon its 
meaning. Call a convention of priests and preachers of all religious sects 
and parties, and assign to them the work of publishing a scriptural and 
unanimous reply to the simple question. What do the scriptures teach as 
the measure of faith, and rule of conduct, to him. ivho would inherit the 
Kingdom ? Let it be such a reply as would stand the scrutiny of deep 
and earnest investigation — and what does the reader ' expect would be 
the result ? Would their knowledge of all the languages living and 
dead ; of Euclid's Elements ; of Ligori, Bellarmine, Luther, Calvin, 
and Arminius ; of the mythologies of the Greeks and Romans ; of 
all the creeds, confessions, catechisms, and articles of "Christendom " ; 
•of logic, ancient and modern ; of the art of sermonizing ; and of all 
religious controversies extant : — would their acquaintance with such 
lore as this bring them to unanimity ; and cause them to manifest 
themselves as " workmen that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing 
the word of truth " ? What can we reason upon this point, but from 
what we know ? Experience, then, teaches us that their performance 
■of such a thing, so simple and easy in itself, would be utterly 
impracticable ; for " the thinking of the flesh is enmity against 
Ood " ; and until they throw away their traditions, and study the 
Word, which is very different from " studying divinity," they will 

a Acts, xxviii. 23, 31. 



88 IlLDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

continue as tliey are, perhaps unconsciously, tlie perverters and enemies 
of the truth. 

The kingdom of Satan is manifested under various phases. When 
the word was embodied in sinful flesh, and dwelt among the Jews, tlie 
Kosmos was constituted of the Roman world, which w^as then based 
upon the institutions of paganism. After these were suppressed, the 
kingdom of the adversary assumed the Constantinian form, which was 
subsequently changed in the west to the Papal and Protestant order of 
things ; and in the east to the Mohammedan. These phases, however, 
no more affect the nature of the kingdom than the changes of the 
moon alter her substance. The lord that dominates over them all from 
the days of Jesus to the present time is Sin, the incarnate accuser 
and adversary of the law of God, and therefore styled " the Devil and 
Satan." 

The words o apx^^ signify the prince, or one invested with power. 
All persons in authority are styled ap^oyreg in the New Testament, 
such as magistrates, and chiefs among the people. Hence, the arcJion 
of the archons would be the chief magistrate of the kingdom. Now, 
sin in its sovereign manifestations among the nations executes its will 
and pleasure through the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of a state. 
What, then, is decreed by emperors, kings, popes, and subordinate 
rulers, are the mandates of " the Prince of the World," who works 
in them all to gratify their own lusts, oppress the people, and "make 
war against the saints," with all the energy they possess. Taken 
collectively from the chief magistrate to the lowest, they are styled 
apxcii and eiovaiat, principalities and powers; the KoafxoKparopEQ rov 
cTKOTovQ Tov aiijjvoQ TovTov, tlic icorld-riileTS of the darkness of this age ; 
who are ra TrvevfxariKa rrig Troyrjpiag ev roig Ewovpavioig, the spirituals of 
ivichedness in the high places of the kingdoms." So the apostle writes 
of the rulers of the world in his day ; and from the conduct they now 
exhibit before the nations in all their kingdoms, it is clear that the 
style is as characteristic of the rulers, and of these times, as it was in 
the first century of the Christian era. Iniquity has onl}^ changed its 
form and mode of attack against the truth. The w^orld's rulers, 
temporal and spiritual, are as essentially hostile to the gospel of the 
kingdom as ever. They could not embrace it and retain the friendship 
of the world. This is as impossible now as at the beginning. But 
things are now quiet with respect to the gospel ; not because the world 
is reconciled to it, but because there are scarcely any to be found who 
have intelligence of it, faith and courage enough earnestly to contend 
for it as it was originally delivered to the saints.'' 

In apostolic times, it was the privilege of the church to make 
known to the world-rulers " the manifold wisdom of God."'^ This 
mission brought the disciples of Christ into contact with them, as is 
related in the Acts. When they stood before these men of sin, in 
whom the thinking of sinful flesh worked strongly, the truth of God 
proclaimed to them brought out the evil of the flesh in all its malig- 
nity. They imprisoned the disciples of Christ ; threatened them with 
death ; tempted them with rewards ; and when they could not shake 

o Ephes. vi. 12. ^ Jude 3. c Ep]:es. iii. 10. 



" THE PUIXCE " CAST OUT BY JESUS. 89 

their fidelity to the truth, tormented them with the crnelest tortures 
they coald invent. The ajDostle styles these the iiedohiai rov ^LcifjoXov, 
the artifices, or ivUes of the accuser .*" against which he exhorts 
believers to stand firm, being panoi^lied with the whole armour of 
God. The war being thus commenced by an attack upon the strong- 
holds of power, the magistrates, urged on by the priests, were not 
content to take v^engeance against them when they came in their way ; 
but they obtained imperial decrees to hunt them out, and destroy 
them. This they did with destructive energy and effect. They 
calumniated the disciples, charging them with the most licentious and 
impious practices ; and employed spies and informers, who personated 
brethren, to walk among them, and watch an opportunity of accusing 
them before the judge. These adversaries of the Christians, being 
actuated b}^ the same spirit of sinful flesh, the apostle terms o avriliKOQ 
viiojv dial3oXog your adversary the accuser; and to express the ferocious 
spirit that impelled the enemy, he compares him to a roaring lion, 
walking about, on the look out for prey. " Resist him," says he ; 
not by wrestling with flesh and blood in personal combat ; but by 
continuing " steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings 
are inflicted in the world upon your brethren."^ 

To walk being dead in trespasses and sins, is to live according to 
the course {anjjv) of this world. So says the apostle.'^ The course of 
the iDorld is according to the thinking of sinful flesh, in whatever way 
it may be manifested or expressed. If a man embrace one of the 
religions of Satan's kingdom, he is still " dead in trespasses and 
sins," and walks according to the course of the world. In brief, 
any thing short of faith in the gospel of the kingdom, and obedience 
to the law of faith, is walking according to the course of the world. 
To w^alk in sin is to walk in this course. Hence, the apostle terms 
walking according to the course of the w^orld, walking according to 
the Prince of the Foicer of the Aii — 6 ap^wv ttjq elovrriag rov liepog ; 
which he explains as " the Spirit noiu icorking in the children of 
disobedience." The " poioer of the air,'' or aerial power, is the 
political power of the world, which is animated and joervaded by the 
spirit of disobedience, which is sin in the flesh ; and styled above, the 
Prince of the Power of the Air. This is that jDrince of whom Jesus 
sjDoke, saying, " Now is the judgment (^-pto-tg) of this world ; now shall 
the Prince of this World be cast out,"'^ that is, " judged."" The key 
to this is suggested in what follows : " And T, if I be lifted up from 
the earth, will draw all luito me. This he said, signifying icliat death 
he should die.'' 

The judgment of the Prince of the World by God, was exhibited 
in the contest between Jesus and the civil and spiritual power in 
Judea. " Its poison was like the poison of a serpent,"-^ when " the 
iniquity of his heels compassed him about." ''The battle was against 
him " for a time. They bruised him in the heel.» " The enemy 
smote his life down to the ground ; and made him to dwell in dark- 
ness, as those that had been long dead."'* But here the serpent- 

« Ephes. iii. 11. Z' 1 ret. V. 8, 9. ^lEpli. ii. 1, 2. '^ Jolm xii. 31. « John xvi. 11. 
/ Psalm Iviii. 4. o Gen. iii. 15. '« Psalm cxliii. 3. 



90 RUDIMENTS Of THE WOELD. 

power of sin ended. It Tiad stung him to death by the strength of 
the law, which cursed every one that was hanged upon a tree : Jesus 
being cursed upon this ground, God " condemned sin in, the flesh," 
through him.'' Thus was sin, the Prince of the World, condemned, and 
the world with him according to the existing course of it. But Jesus 
rose again, leading captivity captive ; and so giving to the world ail 
earnest, that the time wo aid come when death should be abolished, and 
sin, the power of death, destroyed. Sinful flesh was laid upon him, 
" that tlirough death, he might destroy him that had the power of 
death, that is, the devil," or sin in the flesh :^ for, " for this purpose 
the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy 

THE WORKS OF THE DEVIL." e 

It is clear to my mind that sin is the thing referred to by the 
apostle in the word devil. The sting of the Serpent is its power of 
destruction. The " sting of death " is the power of death ; and that, 
the apostle says, in one ]olace, " is sin " ; and in another, " is the deviV 
There are not two powers of death ; but one only. Hence, the devil 
and sin, though different words, represent the same thing. '•' Sin had 
the power of death," and would have retained it, if the man, who was 
obedient unto death, had not gained the victory over it. . But, thanks 
be to God, the earth is not to be a charnel house for ever ; for he that 
overcame the world in his own person,'^ is destined hereafter to " take 
away the sin of the world," and to " make all things new."^ Every 
curse will then cease,'^ and death be swallowed up in victory ; for 
death shall be no more.'' 

The ivorks of the devil, or evil one, are the loorhs of sin. Individu- 
ally, they are " the works of the flesh " exhibited in the lives of 
sinners ; collectively, the}^ are on a larger scale, as displayed in the 
polities of the world. All the institutions of the kingdom of the 
adversary are the works which have resulted from the thinking of 
sinful flesh ; though happily for the saints of God, " the powers that 
be" are controlled by Him. They cannot do what they please. 
Though defiant of His truth, and His hypocritical and malignant 
enemies. He serves Himself of them ; and dashes them against one 
another when the enormity of their crimes, reaching to heaven, 
demands His terrible rebuke. 

Among the works of sin are the numerous diseases which trans- 
gression has brought upon the world. The Hebrews, the idiom of 
whose language is derived from the Mosaic narrative of the origin of 
things, referred disease to sin under the names of the devil and 
Satan. Hence, they inquired, " Who sinned, this man or his parents; 
tliat he was born blind ? " A woman " bowed together with a spirit 
of infirmity for eighteen years," is said to have been " bound of 
Satan," or the adversary, for that time ; and her restoration to health 
is termed "loosing her from the bond."'' Paul also writes in the 
same idiom to the disciples at Corinth, commanding them to deliver 

« Gal. iii. 13 ; Rom. viii. 3. ^ Heb. ii. 14. . « 1 John iii. 8. '^ Joliii xvi. 33. 
e Rev. xxi. 5. / xxii. 3. v xxi. 4. '' Luke xiii. 10-17. 



SATAN AM) DISEASE. 91 

the incestuous brother " unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh " ; 
that is, inflict disease upon him, that he may be brought to repentance, 
" that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. "^ Thus 
he was "judged and chastened of the Lord, that he might not 
be condemned with the world."'' This had the desired effect ; for he 
was overwhehned with sorrow. Wherefore, he exhorts the spiritually 
gifted men of the body" to forgive and comfort, or restore him to 
health, *' lest Satan should get an advantage over them " by the 
offender being reduced to despair : " for," says the apostle, " we are 
not ignorant of his devices," or those of sin in the flesh,'^ which is 
very deceitful. Others of the Corinthians were oft'enders in another 
way. They were very disorderly in the celebration of the Lord's 
Supper, eating and drinking condemnation to themselves. " For this 
cause," says he— that is, because they sinned thas — " many are weak and 
sickly among you, and many sleep,'" or are dead. Many other cases 
might be adduced from scripture to show the connection between sin 
and disease ; but these are sufficient. If there were no moral evil in 
the world, there would be no physical evils. Sin and punishment are 
as cause and effect in the divine economy. God does not willingly 
afflict, but is long-suffering and kind. If men, however, will work sin, 
they must lay their account with " the wages of sin," which is disease, 
famine, pestilence, the sword, miser}^, and death. But let the righteous 
rejoice that the enemy will not always triumph in the earth. The Son 
of God was manifested to destroy him and all his works ; which, by 
the power and blessing of tlie Father, he will assuredly do. 

THE GREAT DRAGON. 

O o^LQ 6 ap-)(aioc, 6 h:aXovjjievoc; Aiaj3o\og, kul o ^arayag, 6 TrXavijJv rr^v 

uiKovfievr]v o\r}v. 

" The old Serpent, suniamed the Accviser and the Adversary, who deceives the 

Avhole habitable." 

The oiKovfXEvr} oXr], or loliole hahitahle, in the days of the apostles, 
was that part of the earth's surface which acknowledged the dominion 
of Rome. Upon this platform had been erected the largest empire 
then known to the world. By its imperial constitution was aggregated 
in one dominion all " the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and 
the pride of life." These lusts foand free course through the 
constituted authorities of the pagan church and state. Of the horrors 
perpetrated upon the world lying under them by their wanton riot, 
the reader will find an ample account in the history of pagan Rome. 
In the progress and maturity of this dominion, sin reigned triumphant 
over the human race. Its lusts were let loose, and the propensities 
alone directed the poHcy of the world. 

The only antagonism experienced by sin was established in Judea. 
There, as we have seen, the first battle was fought, and the first 
victory won over sin, by the Son of Mary. These were the two com- 
batants — sin, working in the children of disobedience ; and " the 

« 1 Cor. V. 5. T^ 1 Cor. xi. 32. « James v. 14. d 2 Cor. ii. 6-11 . 



92 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

truth,'" in tlie person of Jesus. Sin bruised liim in the heel ; but 
God healed him of his wound, and so prepared him for the future 
contest, when he should bruise sin in the head. Now, sin could only 
have crucified him by the hands of power ; for as this world is a con- 
crete, and not an indigested concourse of abstractions, sin, which in 
the abstract " is a transgression of law," must be incorporate to be 
competent to act. Sin corporealized attacked Jesus through the 
Roman power instigated by the chief priests of Israel. At this 
crisis, sin was brought to a head, and ready to sting its victim to 
death. The event was now about to happen, which the Lord God 
predicted, saying to the Serpent, " Thou- shalt bruise his heel."" No 
one would be simple enough to suppose that the literal Serpent was to 
do this in ^propria persona. He was, however, to do it, in the sense ot; 
his being the instrumental cause of sin ; which, through those that 
should afterwards obey it, should inflict a violent death upon the son 
of the woman. Hence, the Roman power, which put Jesus to death 
(for the Jews had not power to do it) represented the Serpent in the 
transaction. And, as sin had been working in the children of dis- 
obedience for 4,000 years ; manifesting itself in the Ninevite, Assyrian, 
Ciialdean, Persian, and Macedonian empires, whose power was at 
length absorbed into the Roman, the last came to be symbolized as 
''the Old Serpent:' 

When the woman's seed rose from among the dead, and " led 
captivity captive," the war upon the Old Serpent began in good 
earnest. The manner in which it was conducted on both sides, may 
be learned from the Acts of Apostles. The parties were the Jewish 
and the Roman power on the one hand, and the Apostles and tlieir 
l:)rethren on the other. These enemies were the two seeds ; the 
former, the " Seed of the Serpent : " and the latter, by constitution in 
Christ Jesus, the " Seed of the Woman:' Hence, in the Apocalypse, 
" the Old Serpent,"^ and " the Woman,"" became the symbols by 
which they are rej^resented. During 280 years ; that is, from the 
day of Pentecost, a.d. 33, to a.d. 313, when Constantine established 
himself in Rome, the contest raged between the pagan power and the 
woman with intense fury. She was calumniated, accused, and tor- 
tured, by the Old Serpent without pity. Hence, the Spirit of God 
surnamed him Aiaf3oXoQ, or the Accuser ; and Itarayag, or the Adver- 
sary ; so that, when he was "cast out" from the government of the 
empire, " a loud voice " is represented as " saying in the heaven, 
Now is come deliverance, and power, and the kingdom of our God, 
and the dominion of his Christ : for the Accuser of our brethren, ivho 
aceuseth them before God day and night, is cast down."'' The history 
of this period is a striking illustration of: the " enmity "^ God has 
put between the seed of the Ser23ent, and the seed of the woman. In 
the war between them, the heel of her seed was bruised by the Ser- 
pent power, as it had bruised that of their great Captain ; but thanks 
be to God who gives them the victory, the time is at the door, when 
they will leave the dead, and with Him bruise the Old Serpent's head 

oGen. iii. 15. f' Rev. xii. 3, 9 : xxi. 2. cReY.xii.l, 4,6, 13,14-17. ''Rev. xii. 10. 

e Gen. iii. 15. 



PHASES OF THE DRAGON POWER. 93 

upon tlie mountains of Israel.'' There can be no friendship between 
these j)arties. Death or victory is the only alternative. There can 
be no x^eace in the v^orld till one or other loe^ suppressed. The 
" enmity " is the essential hostility betwixt sin and God's law, which 
is the truth. Either truth must conquer sin, or sin must abolish the 
truth ; but compromise there can be none. I have great faith in the 
power of truth, because I have faith in God. He is pledged to give 
it the victor}'- ; and though deceivers in church and state may triumph 
for the time, and tyrants " destroy the earth," their end is certain and 
their destruction sure. 

The Dragon is the organic symbol of the Old Serpent power, as 
the Leopard with four heads and four wings'' was of the quadru- 
partite constitution of the Macedonian. The Dragon appears in four 
principal scenes in the Apocalypse ; first, in the taking him who 
hindered out of the way^ a.d. 313 ; second, in the surrendering of 
the power, throne, and extensive dominion of the west, to papalized 
imperio-regal Europe, a.d. 800 ;^ third, in the present crisis of the 
gathering of " the powers that be " to their last conflict for the world's 
dominion ;^ and fourth, in the suppression of the Serpent-powder by 
the Lord Jesus, when he bruises his head, and restrains him for 1,000 
years.^ As the symbol of the Old Serpent in its pagan constitution, 
with Rome as his satanic seat, he is styled " the Great Red Dragon, 
having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads ;" 
but after the revolution by which paganism was suppressed, the 
serpent-power of Rome is simply styled "the Dragon." About a.d. 
334, a new capital was built, and dedicated, by Constantine, and 
called New Rome by an imperial edict ; which, however, was after- 
wards superseded by the name of Constantinople. Old and New 
Rome were now the two capitals of the Dragon-dominion ; and so 
continued to be until Old Rome was surrendered to the imperio-jDapal 
power of the West. New Rome, or Constantinople, then l)ecame 
the sole capital of the Dragon empire ; and Old Rome the capital of 
the Seven-headed and Ten-horned Beast ; an arrangement wdiich 
has continued about 1,050 years, even to this day : so that " they do 
liomage to the Dragon, and they do homage to the Beast, "^ that is, 
they of the east are subject to Constantinople ; and they of the west, 
to Rome. 

But the time is at hand when the dominion, divided between the 
Dragon and the Beast, may be re-united; and the old Roman territory, 
the oLKovjxevri oXt}, with an immense addition of domain, again sub- 
jected to one sovereign. This may be by the fall of the Two-horned 
Beast,'' and the expulsion of the Turks from Constantinople ; which 
w411 then become the throne of the dominion, represented by Nebu- 
chadnezzar's Image, which is to be broken to pieces in " the latter 
days."' The establishment of this sovereignty being accomplished, 
it stands upon the earth as the Accuser and Adversary of God's 
people Israel ; and will make war upon them ;' and will combat 

« Ezek. xxxix. 4. '^ Dan. vii. 6. ^ 2 Tliess. ii. 7. f' Rev. xiii. 2, 4. ^ Rev. xvi. 13. 
/ Rev. xxi. 2. Rev. xiii. 4. '^ Rev. xiii. 11 ; Dan. vii. 11 . » Dan. ii. 28, 34, 35. 
i Dan. xi. 41, 45 ; Ezek. xxxviii. 8-12. 



94 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

with the Faithful and True One, and his saints," as did the Old 
Serpent-power against Michael ^ Constantine and his confederates in 
the early part of the fourth century. The result will be the same. 
The victory will be with Jesus, the Great Prince of Israel,'^ who 
will break his power to pieces upon the mountains of Israel in the 
Battle of Armageddon.'^ This great Adversary of the latter days, 
is the Northern Autocrat for the time being. He is styled Gog by 
Ezekiel.'' In him will be acuminated " all the power of the enemy ; " 
that is, of Sm, imperially manifested in a dominion, such as the world 
has never seen before. Because of this, it is styled the Old Serpent ; 
and because it will exist upon the old Roman territory, it is called the 
Dragon : and from its hostilit}^ to God and His truth, it is " surnamed 
the Devil and Satan." 

THE MAN OF SIN. 
" The Man of Sin, the Sou of Perdition." 

The Dragon, the Old Serpent, surnamed the Devil and Satan > 
being representative of Sijt in its imperial constitution, as manifested 
in the past, present, and future, upon " the Rabitable,'" or Roman 
territory ; the Man of Sin is that dynasty, " whose coming was after 
the energy of the Adversary with all power, and tokens, and prodigies 
of falsehood, and with all the deceit of iniquity in them that 
perish."^ This is what he was in his coming, or presence. The power 
is styled, " the Man of Sin," not because it is to be found in only one 
man, but because it is sin pre-eminently incarnate in an order of men. 
This order occupying one throne, was to "be revealed " out of an 
apostasy from the original apostolic faith ; but before its presence 
could be manifested, a certain obstacle was to "be taken out of the 
way." No order of men such as the apostle describes, could make 
its appearance upon the territory of the Roman Dragon, so long as 
the constitution of the empire continued pagan. This, then, was the 
obstacle to be removed. While it continued, the elements of the new 
power were at work in the Christian body ; but incapable of the exer- 
cise of political authority. These elements are collectively styled " the 
Mystery of Iniquity," the open manifestation of which was withheld 
for a time. 

When the " Red,'' or pagan aspect of the Dragon was changed 
for the " Catholic,'' by the victories of Constantine, the opposing 
power was removed ; in fact, the Adversary, or Satan, now a 
professor of Christianity, took " the Mystery of Iniquity " under 
his patronage ; and as he found paganism no longer fit for the 
contest against the apostolic faith, he determined to change his 
weapon, and to fight it with the apostasy in the name of Christ. 
Hence, the first thing he did was to impose this apostasy on the 
world as its religion. He married it to the state, and established it 
by law. The National Establishment, as it now became, assumed the 
character of " Mother Church ; " and the community in Old Rome, 

« Rev. xix. 11, 14. ^ Rev. xii. 7. « Dan. xii. 1. '' Rev. xvi. 16 ; Ezek. xxxix." 4. 
'^ Ezek. xxxviii. 2. / 2 Thess. ii. 9, 10. 



CONSTANTINE THE " IMAN-OHILD " OF SIN^. 95 

with, its bisliop now converted into the. chief magistrate of the city 
at its head, ^claimed to be the mistress of all churches. The apostasy 
being united to Satan, became the open enemy of God, and the worse 
than pagan persecutor of His truth. Its name is Catholic ; and since 
the division of the Dragon territory into east and west, and the great 
schism about image-ivo7^ship, it is surnamed Greek Catholic, and 
Roman Catholic. The undivided catholic apostas}^ in its first 
establishment is represented in the Apocalypse by " a woman clothed 
with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a 
crown of twelve stars."* This woman, after nine months of years, 
or '* a set time," and not long before she was clothed with tho 
imperial robes, was " pained to be delivered " of her child, which had 
been conceived in her by sin. As the betrothed of the Second Adam, 
the Serpent had beguiled her, and had corrupted her mind from the 
simplicity that is in Christ. Part of her body had embraced another 
Jesus, another Spirit, and another gospel ;^ by which they were so. 
corrupted that they were prepared to take the sword ; declare for the 
first military chieftain, whose anti-pagan ambition of supreme power 
should induce him to embrace their cause ; and to turn Chi-istianity 
into a State Religion. This party found a semi-pagan suited to their 
purpose in Constantine, surnamed " the Great." When he avowed 
himself their champion, all the power of the Old Serpent was brought 
to bear against him and his confederates. They fought ; and victory 
perched upon the standard of the Cross, now become " the mark " of 
the Apostasy. 

Constantine was the man-child of sin, who began that iron-rule^ 
which, in the name of Christianity^ has soaked the dust of the eartli. 
with the best and noblest blood of its inhabitants. He set himself 
up as the arbiter of faith, and the correcter of heretics ; and though 
pretending to believe, yet refusing to be immersed till within three 
days of his death, that he might commit all the sins he would be 
likely to do before he was baptized for remission of sins — yet he is 
belauded by ecclesiastics as a great and pious Christian ! What Con- 
stantine began, his successors on the Dragon throne, Julian excepted, 
perfected. For the Bishop of Old Rome, they conceived an especial 
veneration and regard ; seeing that he was more of a hypocrite, and as 
much of a serpent as themselves. They energized him with all power, 
and set him uj) as the supreme j^ontiff of the world. This god uj)on 
earth, whom their pagan predecessors knew not, they " honoured with 
gold, with silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things." A 
humble bishop of an obscure society in Rome, they acknowledged as a 
god, and increased with glory ;" so that " by the energy of Satan with 
all power," the dominion founded by the man-child of the apostasy 
was matured ; and at length possessed by the Roman bishop as the 
full-grown Man of Sin. 

The presence of the man of sin in Rome for upwards of twelve 
centuries past may be detemiined by Paul's description of him. If 
we find an order of men there answering to the character recorded 
against them, we may know that the man of sin has been revealed. 

« Eev. xii. 1. ?> 2 Cor. xi. 2-4. « Dan. xi. 38, 39. 



90 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

He describes him as one *' loho opposes and exalts himself above 
cv3ry one called a god, or an object of veneration ; so that he sits in 
the temple of the god as a god, exhibiting himself that he is a 
gody^ This in few words is highly descriptive of the Popes. " God " 
in the passage signifies a ruler of whatever kind ; for " god " in the 
scriptures is applied to angels, magistrates, and the whole nation of 
Israel; as, "I said, ye are gods; but ye shall die as one of the 
^jrinces ; " and " worship him ye gods ; " the former being addressed to 
Israel ; the latter, to the angels concerning Jesus. The " temple of 
the god " is St. Peter's at Rome. Now, the history of the papacy 
shows the applicability of the description to the Po]3es, and to them 
exclusively. They have S3"stematicall3^ opposed and exalted tliem- 
selves above every ruler, whether em]Derors, or kings, and above all 
bishops and priests ; so that they have sat in St. Peter's as gods, 
exhibiting themselves thus, because the}^ claim to be gods upon earth. 
The incarnate devilism of these blasphemers of God's name and of 
His people,^ and murderers of His saints, cannot be surpassed by any 
power that could i^ossibly arise. They are essentially sin corpo- 
realized in human shape ; and therefore most emphatically the order 
of the Man of Sin ; as " the Holy, Apostolic, and Roman Catholic 
Church" is the "Mother of Harlots, and of all the abominations of 
the earth." 

Paul styles this dynastic order o avofioc, the Lawless One ; and 
because of its destin3% ''the Son of Perdidon.'' In the Apocalypse, it 
is rej)resented by an Eighth Head'' of the Beast, which divides ''the 
habitable " with the Dragon. Of this head, the Spirit saith, "It goeth 
to perdition^ It is a head, which exercised both civil and pontifical 
dominion over the west ; and when resolved into other symbols, its 
conjoint dominion is represented by a Tv;ro-horned Beast, '^ and an 
image of the sixth head of the Seven-headed Beast '," the former sym- 
bolizing the Austrian power ; and the latter, his ally, the Lawless One. 
These are both doomed to perdition together. Their present intrigues 
are contributing to kindle a flame in Europe, that will convert it into 
" a lake of fire burning loitli brimstone. ''^ Into this will the Beast, 
and the Lawless One, his pseudo-prophet, be " cast alive." The 
dominions they represent will be utterly destroyed by the lightning 
and thunderbolts of war ; and their power transferred to the Dragon, 
the Old Serpent, surnamed the Devil and Satan, of whom I have 
already spoken in the last section. The binding of the Dragon will 
terminate the struggle which began in 1848. Sin will then be cliained ; 
and all flesh implicated in maintaining its ascendancy, be put to shame 
]3 3fore the universe oE God. 

«2 I'liess. ii. 4. ^> Rev. xiii. 0, 7 : xviii. 21. « Rev. xvii. 11. «^ Rev. xiii. 11. 
'^ verses 14, 15. / Rev. xix. 20 ; Dan. vii. 25 ; 2 Thess. ii. 8. 



THE TRIAL OF THE TRANSGRESSORS. 97 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE SENTENCE OF DEATH— THE RUIN OF THE OLD WORLD, AND 
THE PRESERVATION OF A REMNANT. 

The trial of the Transgressors. — Of the Literal and the Allegorical.— The sentence 
upon the Serpent particularized. — The " Peace and Safety " cry. — Jesus came 
not to send peace, but a sword. — The Peace Society the enemy of God. — Cain, 
Abel, and Seth.— Atheism defined. — Cain rejected as the progenitor of the 
Woman's Seed, and Seth ajjpointed. — The Antediluvian apostasy. — The Cainites 
"and Sethites distinct societies. — Their union the ruin of the old world, of which 
eight sons of Seth only survive. — The Foundation of the World. — The sentence 
u2Don A¥oman. — Her social position defined. — The sentence upon Adam. — The 
Constitution of Sin. — Of sin as a physical quality of the flesh. — Of the heredit- 
ary nature of Jesus. — Of " original sin." — Men, sinners in a two-fold sense. — 
The Constitution of Righteousness. — Men become saints by adoption. — The 
Tln-ee Witnesses.— The "new birth" explained. — The Two Principles. — Of 
" the light within." — The scripture revelation the divine principle of illumina- 
tion. — The awfal condition of " the church." — Of the Hidden Man of the heart. 

In the previous chapter, I have treated of the introduction of sin into 
the world ; its immediate effects upon the transgressors ; and of some 
of its remoter consequences upon their posterity. We left Adam and 
his companion hid among the trees of the garden, greatly alarmed at 
the voice of God ; and overwhelmed with shame at the condition to 
which they had reduced themselves. But, though hid, as they 
supposed, they soon found the truth of the saying that is written, that 
" there is not any creature that is not manifest in his. sight : but all 
things are naked and open unto the eyes of him vdth whom we have 
to do.""" When the Lord God called to Adam, he said, in answer to 
the question, "Where art thou?" "I was afraid, because I was 
naked ; and I hid myself." 

This was the truth as far as it went ; but it was not the whole 
truth. Fear, shame, and concealment are plainly avowed ; but why 
he was ashamed he was not ingenuous enough to confess. The Lord 
God, however, knowing from the mental constitution He had bestowed 
upon him, that man could not be ashamed unless his conscience was 
defiled by transgression of His law in fact or supposition, directed His 
next inquiry so as at once to elicit a confession of the whole truth. 
" Who told thee," said He, " that thou wast naked ?" Did I tell thee, 
or did any of the Elohim ? Or, " Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof 
I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat ?" Thou hast no cause 
to be afraid of Me, or ashamed of thine appearance as I have formed 
thee ; unless thou hast sinned against Me by transgressing My law. 
Thou hast heard My voice, and stood upright and naked in My presence 
before, and wert not ashamed ; what hast thou done ? Why coverest 
thou thy transgression by hiding thine iniquity in thy bosom ?^ 

But Adam, stHl unwilling to be blamed according to his demerits, 
in confessing reflected upon the Lord God, and turned evidence 

« Heb. iv. 13. ^ Job. xxxi. 33. 



98 RUDIIVIENTS OF THE WORLD. 

against Eve. " The woman," said lie, " whom thou gavest to 
be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." As much as to 
say, If thou hadst not put her in my way, and I had been left to 
myself, I should not have done it. It is she who is chiefly to blame ; 
for she not only ate herself, bat tempted me. 

The offence being traced to Eve, the Lord Elohim said to her, 
" What is this that thou hast done ? " But her ingenuousness was no 
more conspicuous than Adam's. She confessed that she had eaten, 
but excused herself on the ground of a deception having been practised 
upon her by the serpent : " The serpent beguiled me," said she, " and 
I did eat." 

There is no evidence that the Serpent either touched the tree, or 
ate of its fruit. Indeed, if he had he would have committed no 
offence ; for the law was not given to him, but to Adam and Eve 
only ; and " where there is no law there is no transgression." Besides, 
Paul says Eve was the first in the transgression. The Lord God, 
therefore, did not interrogate the Serpent as He had the others. 
He had, by his clumsy interpretation of what he had seen and heard, 
corrupted Eve's mind from the simplicity of faith, and obedience to 
the divine law ; but he was incapable of showing upon what moral 
grounds he had called in question its literality. He thought they 
would not surely die ; because he thought they could as well eat of 
the tree of life as of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He 
thought nothing of the immorality of the Lord God's solemnly 
declaring a thing, and not performing it. Cognizance of the morality 
of thoughts and actions was beyond the sphere of his mentality. With 
all his superior shrewdness, he was neither responsible, nor able to 
give an account. 

All the evidence in the case being elicited, the Lord God proceeded 
to pass sentence upon the accused in the order of their conviction. 
Being incriminated by Eve, and having, in effect, accused God of 
lying, the Lord began with him, and said, " Because thou hast done 
this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the 
field ; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the 
days of thy life : and I wiU put enmity between thee and the looman, 
and between thy seed and her seed : He shall bruise thy head, and 
thou shalt bruise his heel.'" 

This sentence was both literal and allegorical, like the rest of the 
things exhibited in the Mosaic account ; being " representations of 
the knowledge and the truth. "^ For the information of the unlearned 
reader I remark, that to allegorize is to speak in such a way that 
something else is intended than is contained in the words literally 
construed. The historical allegory has a double sense, namely, the 
literal d,iidi ih.Q figurative ; and the latter is as real, as the former is 
essential to its existence. Thus, the literal serpent was allegorical of 
" sin in the flesh ; " which is therefore figuratively styled the serpent, 
<^c., as before explained. The literal formation of Eve out of Adam's 
side was allegorical of the formation of the church out of him, of 
whom Adam was the figure ; therefore the church is the figurative 

« Rom. ii. 20 ; Heb. viii. 5 : ix. 9, 23, 24 : x. 1 ; Rom. v. 14 ; Gal. iv. 24. 



SUMMARY AND PARAPHRASE. 99 

Eve, and its temptation illustrated by that of tlie literal one. The 
examples of this are ahnost infinite. That of Abraham, Sarah, and 
Hagar as allegorized by Paul in the text below, is a beautiful illus- 
tration of the relation between the literal and the figurative, as they 
are employed in the scriptures of truth. The discernment of the due 
limit between them is acquired, not by rules, but by much and 
diligent study of the word. 

The literal is the exact construction of the sentence as it reads, and 
is found in strict accordance with their natural habit, and mutual 
antipathy between serpents and mankind. They go upon the belly, 
and lick the dust ; and by the deadly quality of their venom, or 
" sting," they are esteemed more hateful than any other creatures. In 
walking loith a naked foot one would be bitten in the heel, whose 
retaliation would be instinctively to bruise the reptile's head. This is 
all perfectly natural ; but what does it suggest ? 

Much that might be said upon the allegorical meaning of this 
passage is alread}^ before the reader. I shall add, therefore, by way of 
summary the following particulars : — 

1. The Serpent as the author of sin, is allegorical of " sin in the 
flesh " ; which is therefore called 6 wovrjpog, " the Wicked One " ; and 
symbolized in its personal and political agency by " the Serpent." 

2. The putting of " enmity " between the Serpent and the woman, 
is allegorical of the establishment of enmity between sin, incorporate 
in the institutions of the world, or the serpent : and the obedience of 
faith, embodied in the congregation of the Lord, which is the woman. 

3. The " seed of tJie Serpent " is allegorical of those over whom 
sin reigns, as evinced in their obeying it in the lusts thereof. They 
are styled " the servants of sin " ;" or, " the tares."'' 

4. The " seed of the looman " is allegorical of " the children of the 
kingdom,''^ or, " servants of righteousness."" They are also termed 
" the good seed,"'' who hear and understand the word of the kingdom, 
sown in their hearts as " incorruptible seed."*^ 

5. The seed of the Serpent, and the seed of the woman, are 
phrases to be taken in the singular and plural numbers. Plurally, in 
the sense of the fourth particular ; and singularly, of tioo separate 
hostile personages. 

6. The serjoent-bruiser of the heel is the sixth, or Imperial, head 
of the Dragon, to be crushed at the period of its binding, in the 
person of the last of the Autocrats. 

7. The head-bruiser of the dragon, the old Serpent, surnamed the 
Devil and Satan, is emphatically the Seed of the woman, but not of the man. 

The allegorical reading of the text founded upon these particulars 
is as follows : "I will put the enmitj'' of that mode of thinking thou 
hast elicited in Eve and her husband against my law, between the 
jDOwers that shall be hereafter, in consequence of what thou hast done ; 
and the faithful, and unblemished corporation, I shall constitute : and 
I will put this enmity of the spirit against the flesh, and of the flesh 
against the spirit,'^ between all who obey the lusts of the flesh, which 

« Rom. vi. 12, 7, 19. ^ Matt. xiii. 23, 38. c i Pet. i. 23. d Rom. viii. 7. 
e Gal. V. 16-17: iv. 29. 



100 EUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

tliou liast excited ; and those of my institution who shall serve me : 
their Chief shall bear away the world's sin" which thou hast originated ; 
and shall destroy all the works^ that have grown out of it : and the 
sin-j)ower'' shall wound him to death ; but he shall recover it, and 
accomplish the work I now pre-ordain him to do." 

THE PEACE AND SAFETY CRY. 
" There is no peace to the wicked saith God." 

The allegorical signification of the sentence became the plan of 
*' the foundation of the world," under the altered circmnstances which 
sin had introduced. It constitutes the earth the arena of a terrible 
strife between two hostile powers ; which was not to terminate until 
His law gained the ascendancy over the sin of the world ; and but one 
sovereign will be obeyed by the sons of men. The enmity He put 
between these parties was not a mere unfriendly verbal disputation, but 
one which reeked of blood. It began with the dispute which caused 
Abel to lose his life, and has continued unto this day. For nearly 
6,000 years has this enmity made the earth a field of blood, and yet 
the war is not ended. The sin-power still lords it over the world, and 
is marshalling its forces for a last decisive blow. The " jDowers that 
be " have laid low the saints of God in all the countries of their 
dominion ; they have bruised them in the heel ; and are now taking 
up their positions, and preparing themselves to arbitrate their relative 
and future destiny by the sword. They have forgotten, or are indifferent 
to, the enormities of the past. They know not that the righteous blood 
they have shed upon the earth cries loudly for vengeance in the ears 
of God. Truth, justice, and equity their souls hate ; and all that they 
propose is to destroy the liberty and happiness of mankind ; and to 
make eternal their own vicious and hateful rule. 

But God is as just as He is full of goodness, mercy, and truth. 
" The death of his saints is precious in the sight of the Lord : " and 
He will not permit them to go unavenged. The " powers that be " 
can therefore no more perpetually exist than convicted robbers and 
murderers can escape the punishment due to their crimes. The law of 
retribution to which God has assigned the adjudication of their punish- 
ment says, " Give them blood to drink, for they are deserving ; heeause 
they have shed the hlood of saints and prophets ;"'' " Reward them 
even as they have rewarded you, and double unto them double 
according to their works ; in the cup which they have filled fill to 
them double."" 

But, though the scriptures of truth are so explicit with respect to 
the blasphemous and felonious character of the governments of the 
world ; though they denounce the judgments of war, pestilence, and 
famine upon the nations subject to them ; though they declare that 
the wicked are the Lord's sword to execute his judgments upon one 
another ; though they most emphatically and solemnly aver that God 
says "there shall be no peace to the wicked ;"•'' and though men see, 

« John i. 20. ^> 1 John iii. 8. " John xix. -10. '^ Rev. xvi. 0. ''Rev. xviii. 6. 

/Isaiah Ivii. 21. 



AEBITEATION IMPOSSIBLE. 101 

and iDvofess to deplore, the wlioredoms and witchcrafts of the Roman 
Jezebel, and the enormities of the cruel tyrants who pour out her 
victims' blood like water to uphold her : notwithstanding all this, 
there are multitudes of people who pretend to take the Bible as the 
rule of their faith ; who claim to be " pious," and class themselves 
among the saints of the Lord : I say, men of these pretensions, headed 
by political and spiritual guides, are clamouring for the abolition of 
war, and the settlement of all international differences by arbitration ! 

Such persons may be very benevolent, or very covetous ; but they 
are certainly not very wise. Their outcry about " peace " evinces their 
ignorance of the nature of " sinful flesh," and of the testimony of 
God ; or, if cognizant of them, their infidelity, and shallowness of 
mind. Before peace can be established in the world, " the enmity " 
which God has put between good and evil, in word and deed, must 
be abolished. Peace is to be deprecated as a calamity by the faithful, 
so long as the Roman Jezebel and her paramours are found among 
the living. " What peace, so long as her whoredoms and witchcrafts 
are so many ? ""* Will they destroy the divisions among powers and 
people, which God's truth is ever calculated to make where it is 
received in wliole or part ? Arbitration indeed ! And who are to be 
the arbitrators ? The popes, cardinals, priests, emperors, and kings 
of the nations ? Can justice, integrity, and good faith, proceed from 
such reprobates ? Do the Quakers, and financial, or acquisitive, 
reformers imagine, that a righteous arbitration could emanate from 
them upon any question in which the interest of nations as opposed to 
theirs were concerned ? Really, the conceit of pious infidelity is 
egregiously presumptuous. If this peace mania be a specimen of " the 
light loithin,'' alas ! how great is the darkness of that place which 
professes to be enlightened by it. 

But the most absurd thing imaginable is that the arbitrationists 
profess to advocate peace upon scriptural grounds ! Because one of 
the titles of the Lord is " the Prince of Peace," they argue that war 
is displeasing to God ; and that Jesus came to establish peace as the 
result of preaching. But war is not displeasing to God any more 
than a rod is displeasing to him that uses it for correction. God 
instituted loar when he put enmity hetioeen the serpent and the icoman. 
It is a divine institution for the punishment of the transgressors of His 
law; and a most beneficent one too: for all the little liberty the 
world enjoys is attributable to the controversy of the tongue, the 
pen, and the sword. What would have been the fate of the thirteen 
trans-Atlantic Colonies, if they had been left to the arbitrative justice 
of George the Third's contemporaries ? The heel of spiritual tyranny 
backed by the civil power, would have trampled upon them to this 
moment. The weak who contend for liberty and truth, have every 
thing to dread from arbitration. With sword in hand, they may 
extort justice from the strong ; but, if under the necessity of expecting 
it at the conscience and tender mercies of " the powers that be," the 
award will be a mockery of justice, and an insult to the sufferings of 
the oppressed. 

« 2 KWs ix. 22. 



102 EUDI:\IE^'TS of the world. 

Yea, veril_y, the Lord Jesus is " the Prince of Peace ; " and 
therefore, no peace society can give peace to the world. It is he alone 
who can establish " peace on earth and good will among men ; " for he 
only is morally fit, and potentially competent to do it. The peace of 
the arbitrationists is peace based upon the transgression of the divine 
law ; and the hostility of the covenanters to the gospel of the kingdom. 
It is an impure peace ; peace with the serpent power reigning over the 
blood-stained earth. Such a peace as this avaunt ! Eternal war is 
better for the world than such a compromise with sin. The peace 
Messiah brings is ''first 'pure.'' It is a peace the result of conquest ; 
the tranquility which succeeds the bruising of the SerjDent's head. It 
is consequent upon the establishment of God's sovereignty over the 
nations, by the hand of him whom he hath prepared to " break in 
pieces the oppressor,"" and let the 0|)pressed go free. " In his days 
shall the righteous flourish ; and abundance of peace so long as the 
moon endures. His enemies shall lick the dust; all nations shall 
serve him, and call him blessed."'' Then shall he judge among them, 
and rebuke them, and speak peace to them.;^ and they shall beat their 
swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks : nation 
shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war 
any mOre."^ 

But the Father did not send Jesus with the idea of bringing 
about this mighty revolution among the nations by preaching the 
gospel ; neither did He propose to effect it in the absence of His Son. 
When he appeared in humiliation he came to take aicay peace from 
the earth, as both his words and history prove. " Suppose ye that I 
am come to give joeace on earth ? I tell you, nay ; but rather 
division. I am come to send fire upon the earth ; and what will I if 
it be already kindled."" "I came not to send peace, but a sword. 
For I am come to set a man at variance against his nearest and dear- 
est relations. So that a man's foes shall be they of his own house- 
hold."'^ This is the way the Prince of Peace spoke when on earth. 
The doctrine he taught is distasteful to the natural mind ; and, by 
the purity of its principles, and astonishing nature of its promises, 
excites the enmity and incredulity of the flesh. Loving sin and 
hating righteousness, the carnal mind becomes the enemy and perse- 
cutor of those who advocate it. The enmity on the part of the 
faithless is inveterate : and where they have the power, they stir up 
war even at the domestic hearth. If the believer wall agree to be silent, 
or to renounce his faith, there will then be " peace and love " such as 
the world, that "loves its own," is able to afford. But the true 
believers are not permitted to make any comjDromiseof the kind. They 
are commanded to " contend earnestly for the faith once delivered 
to the saints ; "^ and so long as they do tliis, they may lay their 
account with tribulation of various kinds. There is a vast deal of 
this false peace and spurious charity in the Protestant world. Men 
have become traitors to Christ, and betray him with their lips. They 
say, " how we love the Lord ! " and were he here they would 

« Psalm IxA'ii. 4, 7, 11. 17 ; Rev. xi. 18. ?' Zech. ix. 10 ; Tsaiah ii. 4. 
'• Luke xii. 49. 51. '' Matt. x. 34-36. '' Jiule 3. 



HOW AND ^VHY THE WORLD WANTS PEACE. 103 

doubtless kiss him ; but, like Judas, they have colleagued with his 
enemies, and are as popular with the world as its god can possibly 
desire. 

The truth is, judging from their arguments, the peace-mongers 
are not so man-loving as they pretend. The cry for peace is a piece of 
ventriloquism emanating from the pocket. Their strongest argument 
against war is based upon its cost. The taxes are bardensome because 
of the extravagance and warlike habits of past governments. This 
pinches them in the iron chest ; and diminishes the profits of trade ; 
and curtails the means of indulging the lusts of their flesh, of their 
eyes, and the pride of life. It is well these mammon-worshippers 
"should feel the pinch. They are the enemies of God, and oblivious 
of His slaughtered saints, and, therefore, richly deserving of all the 
punishment the recklessness of " the powers " have entailed upon the 
world. Those who escape the sword and the famine groan under the 
expense of pu7iishing the tvicked at their oivn cost. Thus, the punish- 
ment re-acts upon all classes. I say, these peace-criers are the enemies 
of God ; for with all their profession of piety, they are at peace with 
the world, and in high esteem and friendship with it ; and " ichoso- 
ever," says the scripture, ''is a friend of the luorld is the enemy of 
Godr 

Look at the peace congress at Paris,'--- composed of popish priests, 
dissenting ministers, French politicians, self-illuminati of the Quaker 
school, English radicals, American pietists of all colours, rationalists, 
infidels, &c., &c. ; all in such high favour with the liherticide dynasty 
of France, as to be let into " Egypt and Sodom "" without passports, 
or custom-house scrutiny ; and to be feted by one of the state officials. 
In what way can the world show its friendship to the peace society 
more palpably ; or the society its reciprocity of feeling with the most 
godless and christless portion of it ? The peace society is the 
world's beloved friend. The world wants peace, that it may find a 
respite from the judgments of God for its iniquity ; and that it may 
enrich itself by commerce, and enjoy itself in all the good things of 
life. The society is the world's employee ; its zealous, Utopian 
missionary ; and, therefore, individually and collectively " the enem^- 
of Godr 

Still, even out of so impious a speculation as this peace society, 
" the wise who understand "^ may extract encouragement. They 
will discern a providence in the foundation of the Quaker sect. This 
unscriptural cry of "peace and safety " emanated from them. They 
have gained wealth in the tem|)le of their god ; and this, with their 
friend " the world," is a sufficient guarantee of their worth and 
respectabihty. Whatever they were in the beginning matters not ; 
they are now the most popular of all religionists with the masses ; to 
please whom a man must pander to their propensities. AW. sorts of 
anti-government factions colleague with the Quakers in their cry of 
peace ; not because they love peace for its own sake ; but by curtailing 

« Rev. xi. 8. ^ Dan. xii. 10. 
"* Opened in August, 1849. 



104 EUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

the resources of the state, and so necessitating the reduction of armies, 
they think they can the more easily supersede the existing tyrannies 
by a still worse one of their own, as it would doubtless prove. This 
unhallowed coalition proclaims its outcry to be " the world's cry.'" 

We accept it as such. It is the cr}^ of the world, which echoes in 
tones of thunder in the ears of the true believers. It is a cry in the 
providence of God, which is a great " sign of the times " ; announcing 
that " the Lord standeth at the door and knocks,"" and is about 
quickly and unexpectedly to appear."'' It is the world's cry, as the 
cry of a woman in travail, which has been extorted by sudden and 
tormenting pains. It blows a trumpet in the wise and understanding 
ear, sounding the approach of " the day of the Lord as a thief in the 
night " ; for "so it cometh ; and when they shall say, peace and 
SAl^ETY ; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon 
a woman with child ; and they shall not escape."" Such is the divine 
mission of the Quakers, and their allies the Cobdenite reformers. Not 
satisfied with crying peace, they cry " safety " likewise. This is a 
peculiar feature of Cobdenism, which urges the disbandment of 
regiments, and the dismantling of ships, on the perverse presumption 
that danger there is none ! Blind leaders of the blind. The groans 
of nations ascending to Heaven on every side ; the kindling embers of 
war smoking in Rome, Vienna, and Constantinople"--- — and yet ye cry 
"Peace and safety"; surely ye are incorrigibly demented, and ripe 
for capture and destruction. 

CAIN, ABEL, AND SETH. 
" If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted ? " 

The allegorical signification of the sentence upon the Serpent 
kindled the first scintillation of hope in the human heart of the 
appearance of One, who should deliver the world from all its ills, and 
advance it to a higher state. The promise of such a personage, and 
of such a consummation, was the nucleus of that "faith, which is the 
assured expectation of things hoped for, and the conviction of things 
unseen. "'^ The belief, and spiritualizing influence, of this hope, 
became the ground of acceptance with God in the earliest times. Faith 
in this promise was established as the principle of classification among 
the sons of Adam. Belief in what He promises is belief in God ; and 

« Rev. iii. 20. ^ Rev. xvi. : xxii. 7, 20. " 1 Thess. v. 1-3. ^ Heb. xi. ] . 

"■■• Constantinople. — In October, 1853, " the embers " blazed up in Constanti- 
nople, and the Sultan declared war against Russia. In February, 1854, Mr. J. 
Sturge and other Quakers of the Bright and Cobden School were received at 
St. Petersburg by Czar Nicholas, who spoke peace and fought on. In March, 
England and France declared war against Riissia. Vienna. — In 1859 the fire 
blazed up in Vienna. Napoleon III. picked a quarrel with Austria. " A. mission 
of peace," in the hands of Lord Cowley, was only the prelude to the Austro- 
Sardinian war. Rome. — The Peace Congress of Geneva (September, J 867), at which 
Garibaldi was present, was immediatel}'' followed bj'^ the revolution ; and the Fall 
of the Temporal Power followed in 1870. So afterwards, to this day (1902), when 
we have seen the Peace Congress at the Hague (1899) followed in the same year by 
the war in South Africa. 



THE OFFERIXGS OF CAIN AXD ABEL. 105 

its influence npon " the fleshly tablet of the heart " is most deifying in 
its eifect ; making the subject of it " a 'partaker of the divine nature.'''' 
Atheism in its scriptural import is not the denial of God's existence. 
ISFone but a fool would say, " There is no God."'* It is worse than this. 
It is to beheve that He exists, and yet to treat Him as a liar. To do 
this, is not to believe His promises ; and he that is faithless of these, 
is " icithout God,'-' adeog- — i.e., an atheist in the world.^ 

In the beginning, this kind of atheism soon manifested itself in 
the family of Adam. Cain, who was conceived in sin, true to his 
paternity, was as faithless of God's word as the Serpent ; while Abel 
believed on God. Hence, the apostle says, " By faith Abel offered unto 
God a fuller sacrifice (ivXeiova Ovaiav) than Cain, hy which he obtained 
witness that he icas righteous, God testifying of his gifts : and by it 
lie being dead yet speaketh."'' This is an important intimation, 
importing that no religious services are acceptable to God, which are 
not predicated on the helief of His 'promises ; " for without faith it is 
impossible to please God."'^ 

This was, therefore, the ground of Cain's reprobation. " The 
Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering : but unto Cain and 
his offering he had not respect," This made Cain fierce and sullen. 
He refused to " bring of the firstlings of the flock, and of the fat 
thereof." He did not believe in its necessity, having no faith in the 
remission of sins by the shedding of sacrificial blood ;" nor in the 
fulfilment of God's promise concerning Him, who, being " braised in 
the heel," or slain as Abel's accepted lamb, should arise, and " bruise 
the Serpent's head," in destroying the works of sin.^ This is what 
Cain did not believe ; and his faithlessness expressed itself in 
neglecting to walk in " the way of the Lord." Nevertheless, he 
continued " a professor of religion ; " for " he brought of the fruit of 
the ground an offering to. the Lord." But the Lord paid no respect 
to him or his offering ; because, in neglecting the sacrifice, he had set 
up his judgment against God ; and in being faithless had in effect 
treated God as a liar ; for, saith the scripture, " he that believeth not 
God hath made him a liar."i? 

But Cain's sullen anger against God could only wound himself. 
His refusal to obey Him could not injure the Most High. He insulted 
God with his " will-worship and voluntary humility,"'' and convicted 
himself as an evil-doer. Self-condemned and impotent, he vented 
his rage against his brother, whom God respected and had accepted. 
He was wroth against him ; " because his own works were evil, and 
his brother's righteous."' He was now a murderer in principle ;' aud 
with this fratricidal feeling rankling in his heart, brought his gift to 
the altar.^ But God, who " discerns the thoughts and intents of the 
heart,"'' called him to account for his lowering aspect, and anger 
against his brother, and said, " If thou doest toell, shalt thou not be 
accepted ? And if thou doest not well, a sin-offering lieth at the door. 
And his hope shall be towards thee, and thou shalt rule over him," 

« Psalm xiv. 1. i Eph. ii. 12. « Heb. xi. 4. ^ HeL. xi. 6. « Heb. ix. 22 : x. 4-14. 

/ 1 John iii. 8. 9 1 John v. 10. '^ Col. ii. 18, 23 i 1 John iii. 12, 15. 

i Matt. V. 22-24. ^ Heb. iv. 12. 



106 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

or have the excellency as the first-born and progenitor of the Seed. 
But Cain was a genuine " seed of the Serpent." The thinking of 
the flesh called by Adam the Serpent, was strong within him. " He 
talked with Abel," who, doubtless, pleaded for the things repudiated 
by Cain. But Cain's reasonings were perverse ; well-doing was not 
at all to his taste ; so that, having no faith in the promise, he preferred 
to follow his own waywardness ; and being determined to rid himself 
of his brother's expostulations, he mingled his blood with the dust of 
the ground. 

Thus was slain by a brother's hand the protomartyr of the faith. 
A righteous man, respected and beloved of God. His only offence 
was, that, in believing the promises of God and doing well, his 
brother was reproved. The fleshly mind hates righteousness, and 
those who practise it ; so that between the two parties the truth and 
righteousness of God " lie as an apple of discord. Abel was the first 
of Eve's sons of whom honourable mention is made on account of 
" the obedience of faith. "^ As Cain was of the evil one by trans- 
gression ; so Abel was of God by the obedience of faith, which evinced 
that " God's seed remained in him." Hence, though both of them 
were born of Eve according to the flesh, their spiritual paternity was 
as opposite as light and darkness. Cain was a man of Sin ; and Abel 
an accepted son of God. In these characters, they stood at the head 
of two divisions of their father's family ; and proximately represented 
the seed of the Serpent, and the seed of the Woman. Cain bruised 
his brother's heel; but God appointed a substitute for Abel in the 
person of Seth, by whom Cain's headship was bruised, and his posterity 
superseded in the earth. Eve, says Moses, " bare a son, and called his 
name Seth : for, said she, God hath appointed me another seed instead 
of Abel, w^hom Cain slew." 

She had many other sons, but none of them are mentioned except 
Cain, Abel, and Seth. When, therefore, we are informed that Seth 
was " appointed instead of Abel," and trace the posterity of Seth 
terminating through a certain line in Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of 
God ; we are taught that Cain lost his excellency by sin, and was 
therefore set aside ; and Abel provisionally appointed to be the 
progenitor of the seed, who is to bruise the Serpent's headship over 
the Avorld. But, Abel having been bruised in the heel, it became 
necessary, in order to carry out the divine purpose, and to answer 
allegorically the indications of the sentence upon the Serpent, to 
appoint another- son of Eve in the place of Abel. According to this 
arrangement, Abel became the type of Jesus, wounded in the heel ; but 
whose sprinkled blood speaks better things than Abers," which cried 
only for vengeance : while Seth typifies him in his re-appearance 
among the sons of men to bruise sin under foot, and to exterminate 
in the course of his reign the Serpent's seed from the face of the 
earth. 

Notwithstanding his crime Cain was permitted to live. But the 
seed of evil-doers never gets renown. Sooner or later their deeds of 

a Matt. vi. 33 ; Rom. i. 16, 17 : ill. 21, 22; 25, 20. i> Rom. xvi. 25, 26 : i. 5. 

c Heb. xii. 24. 



THE DESCENDA^^T3 OF CAIX AND SETH. 107 

villainy consign their names to reprobation. God Md His face from 
Cain, and exiled him from the settlements in Eden. He -^vandered 
still further to the East, " and dwelt in the land of Nod." There he 
founded a city, and called it Enoch. His offspring multiplied, and 
found out many inventions. The}' became wandering tribes, d^^elling 
in tents and tending cattle ; others of them musicians ; and artificers 
in brass and iron. Their women were beautiful, and as the 
descendants of Cain, untrained in the nurture and admonition of the 
Lord, were vain in their imaginations, and demoralizing in their 
associations. 

Seth's descendants in the direct line ended in Noah and Japheth 
at the time of the flood. His posterit}^, in this and the collateral 
branches, multiplied considerably ; but for a time constituted a 
separate commimity from the progeny of Cain. During the lifetime 
of Enos, son of Seth, " they began to call themselves by the name of 
the Lord,"'* or " sons of God .•"" while the faithless and corrupt 
worshippers of the land of Nod were simply styled " men.'^ 

THE ANTEDILUVIAN APOSTASY. 

The Sethites and the Cainites stood related to one another as the 
church of God and the world ; or, as the woman and the serpent. 
So long as the sons of God maintained their integrity, and walked in 
''the loay of the Tree of Life,'" the two communities had no religious 
association, or family intercourse. The time, however, arrived when 
the middle wall of partition was about to be laid low by a general 
apostasy. A spirit of liberalism had arisen among the sons and 
daughters of Seth, the result of an expiring faith, which predisposed 
them to a fraternity, or mixed community, with the Cainites ; who, 
like their father, were religionists of a wilful stamp. The Serj)ent's 
seed enjoyed themselves in those days as they do now. They were 
men of the flesh, grovelling in their tastes, habits, and pursuits ; and 
devoted to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of 
life. Their religion sanctified what pleased them best ; and doubtless 
afforded a fair specimen of the same sort of thing in all subsequent 
ages. 

It is probable, that the precepts and example of the sons of God 
had considerably modified the original impiety of the Cainites, so as to 
bring things to a similar state as that observable in our day. Sects, 
between whom there were no more dealings in their beginning than 
between the Jews and the Samaritans, are now so liberal, that they 
agree to be silent upon all controversial topics for which they once 
contended to the death, and to recognise one another as brethren in the 
Lord ! Thus, if they ever had the truth., they have suppressed it by a 
tacit compromise ; and have become highly respectable, and singularly 
amiable and polite ; so that they " have need of nothing," bat to enjoy 
the good things of the world within their reach. 

The serpents bad become so harmless, and even pious, under the 
influence abroad, and were withal so fair to look upon, and so enchant- 

« Gen. iv. 26 : vi. 2. 



108 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

iiig in their ways ; that the Sethites took them into their bosoms, and 
cherished them with the affection of their own flesh. " They saw," 
says Moses, " that the daughters of men were fair ; and they took 
wives of all they chose." This was a fatal step. Can a man take fire 
into his bosom, and not be burned ? The sons of God corrupted 
themselves in marrying the daughters of Cain. Instead of bringing 
them over to " the Way of the Tree of Life,'' they were beguiled into 
"the Way of Gain.''^ For sons of God to marry daughters of Belial 
is to jeopardise their fidelity to God. This practice has ever been 
fruitful of apostasy. 

Balaam was well aware of this ; and knowing that the only way 
to bring a curse upon Israel was to involve tliem in transgression ; he 
therefore taught Balak, the King of Moab, to tempt them with the 
fair daughters of his people, as the readiest way of beguiling them 
into the worship of their idols ; which would cause God to hate them, 
and so facilitate their conquest by the Moabites. The policy succeeded 
but too well for the honour and happiness of Israel. Moses says, 
" They began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab." The 
consequence of this licentiousness was that the women invited Israel 
unto the sacrifices of their gods : and they did eat, and bowed down 
to them. And Israel joined himself unto Baal Peor.^ And the anger 
of the Lord was kindled against them ; so that He slew four and 
twenty thousand of them. 

After the same example, the union of the Sethites and Cainites 
was productive of the worst results. The offspring of this union were 
" mighty men of renown," whose wickedness " was great in the earth ;" 
for " every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil 
continually."'' Their apostasy, however, was not perfected without 
remonstrance on the part of God. There was one eminent man of 
whom it is testified, that " he pleased God." He " walked with God " 
in the w^ay of the Tree of Life for three hundred years after the birth 
of Methuselah. His name is Enoch. The spirit of prophecy was in 
him ; and the gigantic wickedness of the Antediluvians aroused him 
to reprove their iniquity. Animated by the hope of the ]:)romise 
concerning the woman's seed, he prophesied of the serpents of his own 
and future time, saying, " Behold, the Lord cometh with m37riads of 
his saints, to dispense justice towards all, and to convict all that are 
ungodly among them of tlieir ungodly deeds which they have impiously 
committed ; and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners 
have spoken against him."'^ But his expostulation was unheeded ; and 
God graciously *' translated him that he should not see death ;"^ thus 
rewarding him for his constancy, and giving the faithful a notable 
illustration and earnest of " the recompense of the reward," and of the 
certainty of the punishment of the world. 

Things went on from bad to worse ; " for all flesh had corrupted 
* His Way ' upon the earth ;" " and the earth was filled with violence." 
Before, however, things had come to the worst, the Lord made another 
effort to reclaim the Antediluvians. He had resolved to put an end 
to the wickedness of man upon the earth ; for, said He, " My Spirit 

«Judell. ?> Numb. XXV. 1, 2. ^ Gen. vi. 1-5. 'i Jude 14, 15. « Heb. xi. 5, 26. 



KOAH AND THE SETHITES. 109 

shall not always strive with, him, becaase he is but flesh. ""^ This 
intimates a limit to His forbearance ; that it should have an end, but 
not immediately ; for it is added, " Yet his days shall be a hundred 
and twenty years." 

Four hundred and eighty years before the announcement of this 
determination, a son was born to Lamech, the grandson of Enoch, 
whom he named Noah ; that is, Comfort, saying, '' This same shall 
comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of 
the ground which the Lord hath cursed." This was the hope of 
those who remained faithful of the sons of Seth. They laboured in 
hope of a translation into a rest from their labours, when the curse 
should be removed from the earth.'' In process of time, Noah was 
" warned of God of things not seen as yet." Noah believed them ; 
and " God, hy his spirit " in him, " went and preached to the S]3irits 
(now) in prison,"'' that is, to the Antediluvians, " who were dis- 
obedient in the days of Noah." He warned them of the coming flood, 
which would " destro}^ them from the earth ;" and proved to them 
his own conviction of its certainty by " ^^reparing an ark for the 
safety of his own house ; by the which he condemned the world, and 
became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. "'^ But, his faith 
thus made perfect by his works, made no salutary impression upon his 
contemporaries. " They were eating and drinking, marrying and 
giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and 
knew not till the flood came, and took them all away ; "^ leaving only 
eight persons of the sons of Seth alive. 

Thus, was the mingled seed of Seth and Cain exterminated from 
the earth. Cain's race became utterly extinct, and those only of Seth 
remained, who were upright in their generations, and who walked 
with God. The distinction of seeds was temporarily suspended. 
The generation of vipers was extinct ; but sin in the flesh survived — a 
principle, destined in after times to produce the most hideous and 
terrible results. 

THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD. 
" IiJierit tlie Kingdom prepared from tlie Foundation of the World." 

As the woman had so wilfully sought the gratification of her 
flesh, when the Lord God passed sentence upon her He made it the 
ground of her punishment. " I will," said He, " greatly multiiDly th}^ 
sorrow and thy conception ; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children : 
and thy desire shall be subject to thy husband, and he shall rule 
over thee." This being her portion as the consequence of sin, the 
reverse would have been her condition, so long as her animal nature 
should have continued unchanged, if she had remained obedient. 
She would have brought forth children without pain, and would 
have had fewer of them ; nor would she have been deprived of that 
equality she enjoyed in the garden, and consequently she would have 
escaped that degradation she has experienced in all the countries of 
the world. 

« Psalm Isxviii. 39. ^ Rev. xxii. 3. " 1 Pet. iii. 19. <i Heb. xi. 7. 
eMatt. xxiv. 38-39. 



110 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

The punishinent, however, was not inflicted simply as an indi- 
vidual sorrow. The pain was personal, and the subjection likewise ; 
but the multiplication of woman's conception became necessary from 
the altered circumstances of things ; which were then being constituted 
for the ensuing seven thousand years. In the war divinely instituted 
between the seeds of the Serpent and the Woman, there would be a 
great loss of life. The pojjulation of the world would be greatly 
thinned ; besides which great havoc would be made by pestilence, 
famine, and the ordinary diseases of the flesh. To comjoensate this 
waste, and still to maintain an increase, so that the earth might be 
filled, necessitated that part of woman's punishment involved in the 
multiplication of the conception, which is a great domestic calamity 
under the Serpent-dominion of sin. 

We hear much in some parts of the world of the political rights 
and equality of women with men ; and of their preaching and teach- 
ing in public assemblies. We need wonder at nothing which emanates 
from the unenlightened thinking of sinful flesh. There is no absur- 
dity too monstrous to be sanctified by unspiritualized animal intellect. 
Men do not think according to God's thinking, and therefore it is, they 
run into the most unscriptural conceits ; among which may be 
enumerated the political and social equality of women. Trained to 
usefulness, of cultivated intellect, and with moral sentiments purified 
and ennobled by the nurture and admonition of the Lord's truth, 
women are '" helps meet " for the Elohim ; and much too good for men 
of ordinary stamp. The sex is susceptible of this exaltation ; though 
I despair of witnessing it in many instances till "the Age to come." 
But, even women of this excellency of mind and disposition, were it 
possible for such to do so, would be guilty of indiscretion, presump- 
tion, and rebellion against God's law, in assuming equality of rank, 
equality of rights, and authority over man, which is implied in teach- 
ing and preaching. It is the old ambition of the sex to be equal to 
the gods ; but in taking steps to attain it, they involved themselves in 
subjection to men. Preaching, and lecturing, women, are but species 
of actresses, who exhibit upon the boards for the amusement of sinful 
and foolish men. They aim at an equality for which they are not 
physically constituted ; they degrade themselves by the exhil^ition, 
and in proportion as they rise in assurance, they sink in all that really 
adorns a woman. 

The law, which forms a part of the foundation of the world, says 
to the woman, . '' He shall reign over thee." The nature of this 
subjection is well exhibited in the Mosaic law." A daughter being yet 
in her youth in her father's house, could only make a vow subject to 
his will. If he held his peace, and said nothing for or against, she 
was bound by her word ; but if when he heard it, he disallowed it, 
she was not bound to perform ; and the Lord forgave the failure of 
the vow. The same law applied to a wife. A widow, or divorced 
woman, were both bound to fulfil ; unless their husbands had made 
them void before separation. If not, being subject to God, the}^ had 
no release. 

a Numb. XXX. 3, 15. 



woman's position. Ill 

This throws light upon the apostle's instructions concerning 
women. " They are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith 
the law." And "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjec- 
tion. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usuiy author- 
ity over the man, but to be in silence." The reason he gives for 
imposing silence and subjection, is remarkable. He adduces the 
priority of Adam's formation ; and the unhappy consequences of 
Eve's talkativeness and leadership in transgression ; as it is written, 
*' Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, 
but the woman being deceived was in the transgression "" first. And 
then, as to their public ministrations, he says, " Let women keep 
silence in the congregations ; for it is not permitted unto them to 
speak ; but to be under obedience, as saith the law. And if they 
will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home : for it is a 
shame for women to speak in the congregation."^ It is true, that in 
another place the apostle says, " Let the aged women be teachers of 
good things " ; but then this teaching is not to be in the congregation, 
or in the brazen attitude of a public oratrix. They are to exercise 
their gift of teaching privately among their own sex, " that they may 
teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love 
their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient 
to their own husbands, that the word of God (which they profess) be 
not blasphemed. "° 

Christian women should not copy after the god-aspiring Eve, but 
after Sarah, the faithful mother of Israel, who submitted herself in all 
things to Abraham, " calling him lord."'^ Nor should their obedience 
be restricted to Christian husbands only. They should also obey 
them '' ivithout the word;'' that is, those who have not submitted to it, 
in order that they may be won over to the faith when they behold the 
chaste and respectful behaviour of their wives, produced by a belief 
of the truth.^ 

Such are the statutory provisions enacted in the world's constitu- 
tion at the beginning, with respect to the position of women in the 
body social and political. Any attempt to alter the arrangement is 
rebellion against God, and usurpation of the rights of men to whom 
God has subjected them. Their wisdom is to be quiet, and to make 
their influence felt by their excellent qualities. They will then rule in 
the hearts of their rulers, and so ameliorate their own subjection as to 
convert it into a desirable and sovereign obedience. 

A man should never permit the words of a woman to intervene 
between him and the laws of God. This is a rock upon which myriads 
have made shipwreck of the faith. Adam sinned in consequence of 
listening to Eve's silvery discourse. No temptation has .proved more 
irresistible to the flesh than the enticing words of woman's hps. 
" They drop as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil : but 
her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharjj as a two-edged sword. Her 
feet go down to death ; and her steps take hold on hell."-'' Adam was 
a striking illustration of this truth, as appears from the sentence 

« 1 Tim. ii. 11-14. ^ 1 Cor. xiv. 34, 35. « Tit. ii. 4, 5. d Gen. xviii. 12. 
e 1 Pet. ii. 1-6. / Prov. v. 3-5. 



112 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

pronounced upon him. " Because," said the Lord God, " thou hast 
hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the Tree of 
which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it : cursed is 
the ground for thy sake : in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of 
thy life ; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee ; and 
thou shalt eat the herb of the field : in the sweat of thy face shalt 
thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground ; for out of it wast 
thou taken : for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Thus, 
having passed sentence upon the serpent, the woman, and the man, 
the Lord appointed them a new lata, and expelled them from the garden 
He had made. 

These three sentences, and the New Law, constitute the foundation 
of the world. This is a phrase which occurs in various passages of 
the Bible. It occupies a prominent place in the following text : 
" Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come ye 
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world."" The words in the Greek are cltto Karaj3oXr)g 
Koafxov, which, more literally rendered, signify, from laying the world's 
foundation. The globe is the platform ; the world that which is 
constituted, or built, upon it; and the Builder is God; for "he 
that built all things is God."^ Now, the world was not built out of 
nothing. The materials had been prepared by the work of the six 
days ; and by the moral phenomena of the fall. At this crisis, there 
appeared a natural system of things, with two transgressors, in whom 
sin had enthroned itself ; and who were endued with the power of 
multiplying such as themselves to an unlimited extent. This popu- 
lation, then, was either to act for itself under the uncontrolled 
dominion of sin ; or, things must be so constituted as to bring it into 
order and subjection to the sovereignty of God. The result of the 
former alternative would have been to barbarise mankind, and to fill 
the earth with violence. This is demonstrated by what actually 
occurred before the flood when the divine constitution of things was 
corrupted and abolished by the world. Man when left to himself 
never improves. God made man upright ; but look at the wretched 
specimens of humanity, which are presented in those regions where 
God has left them to their natural tendency, under the impulse of 
their uncontrolled propensities. Man thus abandoned of God, 
degenerates into an ignorant savage, ferocious as the beasts of prey. 

If the Lord God had renounced all interest in the earth, this would 
have been the consummation of His work. Man by his vices would 
have destroyed his own race. But, though transgression upon trans- 
gression marked his career, " God so loved the world,"'' that He 
determined it should not perish, but should be rescued from evil in 
spite of itself. This He purposed to do in such a way as to make 
man reflect the divine nature in his character : and to display his own 
wisdom, glory, and power in the earth. But chance could not bring 
this to pass. Human life, therefore, was not to be a mere chapter of 
accidents ; but the result of a well-digested and unvarying plan. 
Things, then, were to be arranged according to this purpose ; so that 

« Matt. XXV. 34. ^ Heb. iii.' 4. " John iii. IC. 



EUDBIENTS OF THE WORLD. . 113 

in their original constitution should l^e contained the rudiments of a 
" glorious manifestation ;" which, as a grain of mustard seed, should 
so unfold tl^emselves under the fostering hand of God as to become 
" a tree, which is the greatest among herbs,"" in whose branches the 
family of man might be refreshed. 

In the acorn, it is said, can be traced by aid of the microscope, 
the branches of the future oak. So in " the Rudiments of the World " 
are traceable the things of the future Kingdom of God. These 
rudiments, or elements, are exhibited in the sentences upon the 
serpent, the woman, and the man ; and in that institution styled, " The 
Way of the Tree of Life." Out of these things were afterwards to 
arise the Kingdom of God ; so that in constituting them, a founda- 
tion was laid upon which " the world to come " should be built ; 
even that world of which Abraham was constituted the heir ;^ and 
which, when finished at the end of six days of a thousand years each, 
will manifest the woman's Seed triumphant over the Serpent-power ; 
resting from his work" in the Sabbatism which remains for the 
IDCople of God.'' 

The things laid, or fixed, in the rudimental constitution of the 
world, may be summarily stated in the following particulars : — 

1. Sin in the flesh, the enemy of God, contending for the 
dominion of the world. 

2. Mankind in a state of nature, subject to the propensities ; and 
to pain, trouble, and death. 

3. Labour and toil the condition of existence in the present state. 

4. The subjection of woman to the lordship of man. 

To these things was estabhshed a divine antagonism, by which 
they might be controlled ; and a system of things elaborated in 
conformity with the purpose of God. This part of the foundation 
may be stated as : 

1. The law and truth of God as expressed in " His AVay," 
demanding unreserved submission to its authority. 

2. Mankind under the influence of this truth assuredly believed, 
contending for it. 

3. Divine power exhibited in the punishment of men, and in the 
performance of His promises. 

The action and re-action of these agencies upon one another was 
to produce : 

1. An enmity and war in the earth between the Sin-power and 
the Institution opposed to it. 

2. A bloody persecution of the adherents of the truth. 

3. The destruction of the Sin-power by a personage to be mani- 
fested for the purpose ; and 

i. The consequent victory of divine truth, and establishment of 
the Kingdom of God. 

That the crisis of the fall loas the period of laying the foundation 
of the world, in its civil, social, and spiritual relations, appears from 
the use of the phrase in the apostolic writings. The Lord Jesus, 
speaking of what was about to come upon the generation then living 

« Matt. xiii. 31, 32. ^ Rom. iv. 13. c Heb. iv. 3, 8, 9, 11. 



114 • RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

in Judea, said, " The blood of all the prophets shed from the founda- 
tion of the world shall be required of this generation " ; and to show 
to what period of the world he referred, he added by way of explana- 
tion, *'from the blood of Abel,"" the prophet of his day. The 
phrase is also appHed by the apostle to the work of the six 
days ;^ that is, as the basis, or substratum, in or upon which, the social 
and pohtical system was constituted. There is further proof of the 
judgment of the transgressors being the institutional foundation of the 
world, in the words, "All that dwell upon the earth shall do homage 
to him," the ten-horned papal Beast, " whose names are not written 
in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the laying of the 
world's foundation.'''^ By this is signified, that, when the Lord Grod 
appointed coats of skins to cover the man and woman's shame, 
Lambs were slain, which they were taught to understand were repre- 
sentative of the Seed, who should be slain for the sins of all the 
faithful ; and with whose righteousness they should be clothed, after 
the type of their covering by the skins of their sacrifices. Thus, 
from the institution of sacrifice in Paradise till the death of Jesus on 
the cross, he was typically slain ; and the accepted worshippers, 
being full of faith in the divine promise, like Abel and Enoch, under- 
stood to what the slaughtered lambs referred. Their names were 
consequently written in the remembrance of God,'^ as inheritors of the 
kingdom ; whose foundation was commenced in Paradise, and has been 
preparing ever since, that when finished it may be manifested " in 
Eden the garden of the Lord." 

THE CONSTITUTION OF SIN. 
" The creattire was made subject to evil, not wiUingly, but by reason of him. who 

subjected it in hope." 
The introduction of sin into the world necessitated the constitution 
of things as they were laid in the beginning. If there had been no 
sin there would have been no " enmity " between God and man ; 
and consequently no antagonism by which to educe good out of evil. 
Sin and evil are as cause and effect. God is the author of evil, but 
not of sin ; for the evil is the punishment of sin. *' I form the light, 
and create darkness : I make peace, and create evil : I the Lord do 
all these things."^ " Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath 
not done it?"-^ The evil then to which man is subjected is the 
Lord's doing. War, famine, pestilence, flood, earthquake, disease, 
and death, are the terrible evils which God inflicts upon mankind for 
their transgressions. Nations cannot go to war when they please, 
any more than they can shake the earth at their wiU and pleasure ; 
neither can they preserve peace, when He proclaims war. Evil is the 
artillery with which He combats the enemies of His law, and of His 
saints ; consequently, there will be neither peace nor blessedness for 
the nations, until sin is put down. His people avenged, and truth and 
righteousness be established in the earth. 

«I>uke xi. 50-51. ^ Heb. iv. 3-4. ^ Rev. xiii. 8. '^ Mai. iii. 16 ; Rev. xvii. 8 : 
XX. 12 : xxi. 27. « Isaiah xlv. 7. / Amos iii. 6. 



IIOAV THE FLESH THINKS. 115 

This is the constituted order of things. It is the constitution of 
the world ; and as the world is sin's dominion, or the kingdom of the 
adversary, it is the constitution of the kingdom of sin. 

The w^ord sin is used in two principal acceptations in the scripture. 
It signifies in the first place, " the transgression of law ; " and in the 
next, it represents that physical principle of the animal nature, which 
is the cause of all its diseases, death, and resolution into dust. It is 
that in the flesh " lu/iic/i has the 'power of death;'' and it is called 
sin, because the development, or fixation, of this evil in the flesh, 
was the result of transgression. Inasmach as this evil princijDle per- 
vades every part of the flesh, the animal nature is styled " sinful 
flesh," that is, flesh full of sin ; " so that sin, in the sacred style, came 
to stand for the substance called man. In human flesh " dwells no 
good thing ; "" and all the evil a man does is the result of this prin- 
ciple dwelling in him." Operating upon the brain, it excites the " pro- 
pensities," and these set the " intellect " and " sentiments " to work. 
The propensities are blind, and so are the intellect and sentiments 
in a iDurely natural state ; when, therefore, the latter operate under 
the sole impulse of the propensities, " the understanding is darkened 
through ignorance, because of the blindness of the heart. "^ The 
nature of the lower animals is as full of this physical evil principle 
as the nature of man ; though it cannot be styled sin with the same 
expressiveness ; because it does not possess them as the result of their 
own transgression ; the name, however, does not alter the nature of 
the thing. 

A defective piece of mechanism cannot do good work. The prin- 
ciple must be perfect, and the adaptation true, for the working to be 
faultless. Man in his physical constitution is imperfect ; and this imper- 
fection is traceable to the physical organization of his flesh, being based 
on the principle of decay and reproduction from the blood ; which, 
acted upon by the air, becomes the life of his flesh. All the phenomena 
which pertain to this arrangement of things is summed u.p in the 
simple word sin ; which is, therefore, not an individual abstraction, 
but a concretion of relations in ail animal bodies ; and the source of 
all their physical infirmities. Now, the apostle says, that the flesh 
thinks — TO ^povr]jxa rr]Q crapKog — that is, the brain, as all who think are 
well assured from their own consciousness. If, then, this thinking 
organ be commanded not to do wdiat it is natural for it to do under 
blind impulse, will it not naturally disobey ? Now this disobedience is 
wrong, because what God commands to be done is right, and only 
right ; so that " by his law is the knowledge of sin ; " and this law, 
requiring an obedience which is not natural, flesh is sure to think in 
opposition to it. The philosophy of superstition is — religion in har- 
mony loith the thinking of the flesh : while true religion is religion in 
accordance with the thoughts of God as expressed in His law. Hence, 
it need excite no astonishment that religion and superstition are so 
hostile ; and that all the world should uphold the latter ; while so few 
are to be found who are identified with the religion of God. They are 
as opposite as flesh and spirit. 

aRoiii. vii. 18, 17. ^Epli. iv. 18. 



116 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

Sin, 1 say, is a synonym for human nature. Hence, the flesh is 
invariably regarded as undean. It is therefore written, "How can he 
be clean who is born of a woman? "" " Who can bring a clean thing 
out of an unclean? Not one."^ "What is man that he should be 
clean ? And he which is born of a woman that he should be righteous ? 
Behold, God patteth no trust in his saints ; yea, the heavens are not 
clean in his sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man, who 
drinketh iniquity like water ?"" This view of sin in the flesh is enlight- 
ening in the things concerning Jesus. The apostle says, " Grod made 
him to he sin for us, who knew no sin ;"'^ and this he explains in 
another place by saying, that "He sent his own son in the likeness of 
sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh^ in the offering of 
his body once.^ Sin could not have been condemned in the body of 
Jesus, if it had not existed there. His body was as unclean as the 
bodies of those for whom he died ; for he was born of a woman, and 
" not one " can bring a clean body oat of a defiled body ; for " that," 
says Jesas himself, " which is born of the flesh is flesh. "^ 

According to this physical law, the Seed of the woman was born 
into the world. The nature of Mary was as unclean as that of other 
women ; and therefore could give birth only to " a hody " like her own, 
though especially " prepared of God."'' Had Mary's nature been im- 
maculate, as her idolatrous worshippers contend, an immaculate body 
woald have been born of her ; which, therefore, would not have answered 
the purpose of God ; which was to condemn sin in the flesh ; a thing 
that could not have been accomplished, if there were no sin there. 

Speaking of the conception and preparation of the Seed, the pro- 
phet as a typical person, says, " Behold, 1 was shapen in iniquity ; 
and in sin did my mother conceive me."' This is nothing more than 
affirming, that he was born of sinful flesh ; and not of the pure and 
incorruptible angelic nature. 

Sinful flesh being the hereditary nature of the Lord Jesus, he was 
a fit and proper sacrifice for sin ; especially as he was himself " inno- 
cent of the great transgression," having been obedient in all things. 
Appearing in the nature of the- seed of Abraham,^ he was subject to 
all the emotions by which we are troubled ; so that he was enabled to 
sympathise with our infirmities,^ being " made in all things like unto 
his brethren." But, when he was " born of the siDirit " in the 
quickening of his mortal body by the spirit,^ he became a spirit ; for 
"that which is born of the spirit is spirit.'' Hence, he is "the Lord 
the Spirit," incorruptible flesh and bones. 

Sin in the flesh is hereditary ; and entailed upon mankind as the 
consequence of Adam's violation of the Eden law. The " original 
sin " was such as I have shown in previous pages. x4dam and Eve 
committed it ; and their posterity are suffering the consequence of it. 
The tribe of Levi paid tithes to Melchisedec many years before Levi 
was born. The apostle says, "Levi, who receiveth tithes, paid 
tithes in Abraham." Upon the same federal principle, all mankind 

« Job XXV. 4. '' Job xiv. 4. " Job xv. 14-16. '' 2 Cor. v. 2] . <-■ Rom. viii. 3. 

/ Hel). X. 10, 12, 14. r/ Jolm iii. 6. '^ Heb. x. 10, 12, 14. ' Psalm li. 5. 

j Heb. ii. 16-18. '^ Heb. iv. 15. i Rom. viii. 11. 



THE TWO STATES OR KIXGDOilS. 117 

ate of the forbidden frait, being in the loins of Adam when he 
transgressed. This is the only way men can by any possibility be 
gnilty of the original sin. Because they sinned in Adam, therefore 
they return to the dust from which Adam came— e</)' w, says the 
apostle, ''in icJiom all sinned."* There is much foolishness spoken 
and written about " original sin." Infants are made the subjects of a 
religious ceremony to regenerate them because of original sin ; on 
account of which, according to Geneva philosophy, they are liable to 
the flames of hell for ever ! If original sin, which is in fact sin in 
the Hesh, were neutralised, then all " baptismal] 3'- regenerated " babes 
ought to live for ever, as Adam would have done had he eaten of the 
Tree of Life after he had sinned. But the}'- die ; which is a proof 
that the " regeneration " does not " cure their souls ; " and is, there- 
fore, mere theological quackery. 

Mankind being born of the flesh, and of the will of man, are born 
into the world under the constitution of sin. That is, they are the 
natural born citizens of Satan's kingdom. By their fleshly birth, 
they are entitled to all that sin can impart to them. What creates 
the distinction of bodies pohtic among the sons of Adam ? It is con- 
stitution, or cov^enant. By constitution, then, one man is English, 
and another American. The former is British because he is born of 
the flesh under the British constitution. In this case, he is worthy of 
neither praise nor blame. He was made subject to the constitution, 
not willingly, but by reason of them who chose that he should be 
born under it. But, when he comes of age, the same man may 
become an American. He may put off the old man of the political 
flesh, and put on the new man, which is created by the constitution of 
the United States ; so that by constitution, he becomes an American 
in ever}^ particular, but the accident of birth. This will be exact 
enough to illustrate what I am about to say. 

There are two states, or kingdoms, in God's arrangements, which 
are distinguished by constitution. These are the kingdom of Satan 
and the Kingdom of God. The citizens of the former are all sinners ; 
the heirs of the latter are saints. Men cannot be born heirs by the will 
of the flesh ; for natural birth confers no right to God's Kingdom. 
Men must be born sinners before they can become saints ; even as one 
must be born a foreigner before he can be an adopted citizen of the 
States. It is absurd to say that children are born holy, excejot in the 
sense of their being legitimate. None are born holy, but such as are 
born of the Spirit into the Kingdom of God. Children are born 
sinners or unclean, because they are born of sinful flesh ; and " that 
which is born of the flesh is flesh," or sin. This is a misfortune, not 
a crime. They did not will to be born sinners. They have no choice 
in the case ; for, it is written, " The creature was made subject, 
TT] fjLaTaiorrjTi, to the evil, not willingty, but by reason of him who 
subjected it in hope.'''' Hence, the apostle says, " By Adam's 

a Rom viii. 20. 

■■••'This marginal reading of tlie A.V. cannot be siistained. The Revised 
Version has struck it out. 



118 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

disobedience the many were made sinners ;^ that is, they were endowed 
with a nature like his, which had become nnclean, as tlie result of 
disobedience ; and by the constitution of the economy into which they 
were introduced by the will of the flesh, they were constituted trans- 
gressors before they were able to discern between right and wrong. 

UiDon this principle, he that is born of sinful flesh is a sinner ; 
as he that is born of English parents is an English child. Such a 
sinner is an heir of all that is derivable from sin. Hence, new-born 
babes suffer all the edl of the peculiar department of Satan, or sin's, 
kingdom to which they belong. Thus, in the case of the Amalekites 
when the divine vengeance fell upon them, the decree was — " Utterly 
destroy all that they have, and spare them not ; but slay both man 
and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass."^ The 
destruction of " infants and sucklings " is especially commanded in 
divers j)arts of scripture. Not because they were responsible trans- 
gressors ; but, on the same principle that men not only destroy all 
adult serpents that come in their way, but their thread-like progeny 
also ; for in these is the germ of venomous and malignant reptiles. 
Had God spared the infants and sucklings of the Canaanitish nations, 
when they had attained to manhood, even though they had been 
trained by Israel, they would have reverted to the iniquities of their 
fathers. Even Israel itself proved a stiff-necked and perverse race, 
notwithstanding all the pains bestowed upon their education by the 
Lord God ; how much more perverse would such a seed of evil 
serpents as the Canaanitish offspring have turned out to be ? 

It is a law of the flesh that "like produces like." Wild and 
truthless men reproduce themselves in their sons and daughters. The 
experiment has been tried on Indian infants. They have been taken 
from their parents, and carefully educated in the learning and civiliza- 
tion of the white man ; but when they have returned to their tribe as 
men, they have thrown off the habits of their patrons, and adopted 
the practices of savage life. The same tendency is seen in other 
animals. Hatch the eggs of the wild turkey under a tame one ; and 
as soon as they are able to shift for themselves they will leave the 
poultry yard, and associate with the wild species of the woods. So 
strong is habit, that it becomes a law to the flesh, when continued 
through generations for a series of years. 

But men are not only made, or constituted, sinners by the dis- 
obedience of Adam, but they become sinners even as he, by actual 
transgression. Having attained the maturity of their nature, they 
become accountable and responsible creatures. At this crisis, they 
may be placed by the divine arranging in a relation to His word. It 
becomes to them a Tree of Life,'' inviting them to ''take, and eat and live 
for ever." If, however, they prefer to eat of the world's forbidden 
fruit, they come under the sentence of death in their own behalf. They 
are thus doubly conden.ned. They are " condemned already " to the 
dust as natural born sinners ; and, secondarily, condemned to a 
resurrection to judgment for rejecting the gospel of the kino^dom of 
God : by which they become obnoxious to " the Sf.cond Death.'''' 

a Rom. V. 19. ?' 1 Sam. xv. 3. <• Prov. Hi. IS. '' Rev. xx. 14. 



THE CONSTITUTIOX OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 119 

Thus men are sinners in a twofold sense ; first , by natural birth ; 
and next, by transgression. In the former sense, it is manifest they 
could not help themselves. They will not be condemned to the Second 
Death because they were born sinners ; nor to any other pains and 
penalties than those which are the common lot of humanity in the 
present life. They are simply under that provision of the constitution 
of sin, which says, " Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." 
Now, if the Lord God had made no other arrangement than that 
expressed in the sentence upon the woman and the man, they and all 
their posterity in all their generations would have incessantly gone to 
dust, and there have remained for ever. " The wages of sin is death." 
Sinful flesh confers no good thing upon its offspring ; for holiness, 
righteousness, incorruptibility, and life for ever are not hereditary. 
None of these are inherent in animal flesh. Sinners can only acquire 
them by a conformity to the law of God ; who offers them freely to 
aU who thirst after the water of life eternal.'* 

THE CONSTITUTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
"Constituted the righteoitsuess of God in Christ." 

The former things being admitted, if men would be righteous 
in God's esteem, they must become such hy constitution also. The 
" good actions " of a pious sinner are mere "dead works;" for the 
actions of a sinner to be of any worth in relation to the future state, 
he must be " constituted righteous ;" and this can only be by his 
coming under a constitution made and provided for the purpose. A 
stranger and foreigner from the commonwealth of the States, can only 
become a fellow-citizen with Americans, by taking the oath of abjura- 
tion, fulfilling the time of his probation, and taking the oath oE 
allegiance according to the provisions of the constitution. 

Now, the Kingdom of God has a constitution as well as the King- 
dom of Satan, or that province of it styled the United States. Before 
sinners come under it, they are characterized as " without Christ, being 
aliens from the Commonioealth of Israel, and strangers from the cove- 
nants of promise, having no hope, and without God (adeoi atheists) in 
the world. "^ They are termed " far off,"^ " strangers and foreign- 
ers,"^ " walking in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding 
darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance 
that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart."'' But, mark 
the sacred style descriptive of sinners after they have been placed 
under the constitution of Israel's Commonwealth, which is the King- 
dom of God. " You that were far off are made nigh by the blood of 
Christ ;" " through him you have access by one spirit to the Father ; 
and are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the 
saints, and of the household of God " — " fellow-heirs, and of the same 
body, and partakers of God's promise in Christ hy the gospel.^''^ In 
this remarkable contrast is discoverable a great change in state and 
character predicated of the same persons. How was this transformation 

« Rev. xxii. 17 ; Isaiah Iv. 1-3. ^ Ephes. ii. 12, 13,19. <= Ephes. iv. 17, 18. 

^ Ephes. iii. 6. 



120 IIUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

effected ? This question is answered by the phrase, " In Christ hy the 
gospel." The " in " expresses the state ; the " b?/," the instrumentahty 
by which the state and character are changed. 

As the constitution of sin hath its root in the disobedience of the 
First Adam, so also hath the constitution of righteousness root in the 
obedience of the Second Adam. Hence, the apostle says, "As 
through one offence (sentence was pronounced) upon all men unto 
condemnation ; so also through one righteousness (sentence was pro- 
nounced) upon all men (that is, Jews and Gentiles) unto a justification 
of life. For as through the disobedience of the one man the many 
were constituted {jcarearaQiqaav) sinners ; so also through the obedience 
of the one the many were constituted righteous. ''^^ The two Adams are 
two federal chiefs ; the first being figurative of the second^ in these 
relations. All sinners are in the first Adam ; and all the righteous, in 
the second, only on a different principle. Sinners were in the loins of 
the former when he transgressed ; but not in the loins of the latter, 
when he was obedient unto death ; therefore, " the flesh profiteth 
nothing." For this cause, then, for sons of Adam to become sons of 
God, they must be the sabjects of an adoption, which is attainable 
only by some divinely appointed means. 

The apostle then brings to light two sentences, which are co-exten- 
sive, but not co-etaneous in their bearing upon mankind. The one is a 
sentence of condemnation, which consigns ''the many," both believing 
Jews and Gentiles, to the dust of the groimd ; the other is a sentence 
which affects the same " many," and brings them out of the ground 
again to return thither no more. Hence, of the saints it is said, " The 
body is dead because of sin ; but the spirit (gives) life because of 
righteousness ; "" for " since by a man came death, by a man also 
came a resurrection of dead persons (apaaraaig veKptJv). For as in 
Adam they all die, so also in Christ shall they all be made alive. But 
every one in his own order : Christ the first fruits ; afterward they 
that are Christ's at his coming."'^ It is obvious that the apostle is not 
writing of all the individuals of the human race ; but only of that 
portion of them that become the subject of " a justification of life,''^ 
^iKaiojaig l,ii)r]c. It is true, that all men do die ; but it is not true that 
they are all the subjects of justification. Those who are justified are 
'• the many," ol ttoXXol, who are sentenced to Hve for ever. Of the rest 
we shall speak hereafter. 

The sentence to j ustification of life is through Jesus Christ. In 
being made a sacrifice for sin by the pouring out of his blood upon 
the cross, he was set forth as a hlood sprinkled mercy seat to all 
believers of the gospel of the kingdom, who have faith in this remis- 
sion of sins through the shedding of his blood. " He was delivered 
for our offences, and raised again for our justification ; "'' that is, for 
the pardon of those who helieve the gospel ; as it is written, " He that 
believeth the gospel and is baptised shall be saved."-'' Hence, " the 
ohedience of faith,''^ is made the condition of righteousness ; and this 
obedience implies the existence of a " law of faith,'' as attested by 

« Rom. V. 18, 1 9 ; ^ 14. <= Rom. viii. 10, 1 1. - 'U Cor. xv. 21-23. « Rom. iv. 25. 
/Mark xvi. 15, 16. £7 Rom. i. 5. 



THE LAW OF FAITH. 121 

that of Moses, which is" the law of works.'""' The law of faith says to 
him who beheves the gospel of the kingdom, " Be renewed, and be ye 
every one of j^ou baptised in the name {ewi no ovo^arL) of Jesus Christ 
for remission of sins."^ 

Here is a command which meets a man as a dividing line between 
the State of Sin and the State of Righteousness. The obedience of 
faith finds expression in the name of Jesus as " the mercy seat through 
faith in his blood." Hence the apostle says to the disciples in Corinth, 
" Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of 
God ? Be not deceived ; neither fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, 
effeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind, nor covetous, nor 
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of 
God. And such icere some of you : but ye were washed, sanctified, 
and made righteous {edncanodrjTe) in the name (ev rio ovofxari) of the Lord 
Jesus, and in the spirit {ev rw TrvevfiaTi) of our God."'= Thus, the spirit, 
which is put for the gospel of the kingdom and name, renewed these 
profligates ; the divine law and testimony attested by the spirit with 
signs, and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts,'^ and believed with 
a full assurance of conviction that worked in them by love to will and 
to do — caused them to be " washed in the name,^^ to be " sanctified in 
the name,"" and to be '^ made righteous in the name of Jesus Christ." 

It must be clear to any man, unspoiled by a vain and deceitful 
philosophy, that to be washed in a name is impossible, unless the 
individual have faith in the name, and be subjected to the use of a 
fluid in some way. Now, when a man is " washed in the name of 
Jesus Christ," there are three witnesses to the fact, by whose testimony 
every thing is established. These are the spirit, the water, and the 
blood, and they all agree in one statement. Jesus Christ was made 
manifest hy water at his baptism ;'^ and hy hlood in his death ; and 
hy the spirit in his resurrection : therefore, the spirit who is the truth 
(to TTvevfxa eariv r/ aXrjdeta), and the water, and the blood, or the truth 
concerning the Messiahship, sacrificial character, and resurrection of 
Jesus, are constituted the witnesses who bear testimony to a man's 
being the subject of " the righteousness of God "/ set forth in the 
gospel of His Kingdom. The testimony of these witnesses is termed 
" the witness of God," which every believer of the Kingdom and 
Name hath as " the witness in himself. ''^ 

Water, then, is the medium in which the washing occurs. But, 
although water is so accessible in all parts of the world where the 
gospel has been preached, it is one of the most difficult things under 
heaven to use it so as to wash a man in the name of Jesus Christ. 
What ! says one, is it difiicult to get a man to be dipped in water as 
a religious action ? No ; it is very easy. Thousands in society go 
into the water on very slender grounds. But going into the water, 
and having certain words pronounced over the subject, is not washing 
in the name. The difficulty lies, not in getting men to be dipped, but 
in first getting them to beheve " the things concerning the Kingdom 
of God and the Name of Jesus Christ " ;'' or " the exceeding great and 

«-Rom. iii. 27, 21. ?> Actsii. 38. « 1 Cor. vi. 9-11. d Heb. ii. 3, 4. e John i. 31. 
/ Rom, i. 17 : iii. 21, 22, 25, 26. s 1 John v. 6-10. '» Acts viii. 12. 



122 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

precious promises," by the faith of which they can alone become the 
" partakers of the divine nature,"'^ Without faith in these things, 
there is no true washing, no sanctification, or purification, from moral 
defilement, and no constitution of righteousness by the name of Jesus 
for the sons of men ; for, says the scripture, " without faith it is 
impossible to please God." 

It was the renewing efficacy of the exceeding great and precious 
promises of God assuredly believed, that changed the gay and 
profligate Corinthians into " the sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be 
saints " ; of whom, it is testified, that " hearing, they believed and 
were baptised."^ Now, to these baptised believers he writes, and 
tells them that " God made (eTrou)(T8v) Jesus, who knew not sin, to be 
sin (that is, sinful flesh) for them, that they might be constituted 
(yLvwvrai) God's righteousness in Him " ;" so that, being introduced 
into Him (for an individual cannot be in a federal person unless intro- 
duced into Him) the crucified and resurrected Jesus became " the 
Lord their righteousness " f as it is written, " Of Him, Corinthians, 
are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God was constituted (eyEvrjdr]) for us 
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption."'' So that, 
whosoever is in him, is said to be " complete in him ;^^ in whom he is 
circumcised " iri putting off the body of the sins of the flesh ,•" that 
is, all past sins ; being baried with Christ in the baptism, in which 
also he rises with him through the belief of the power of God evinced 
in raising him from among the dead.^ 

Jsow, because the unconstituted, or unrighteous, cannot inherit 
the kingdom of God, the law is revealed which says, " Ye must he horn 
again;'' for says the King, " Except a man be born again he cannot 
behold the kingdom of God." This saying is unintelligible to men 
whose thinking is guided by the flesh. They cannot comprehend 
" how these things can be :" and, though they profess to be "teachers 
of Israel," " Masters of Arts," and " Bachelors," and " Doctors of 
Divinity," and of " Canon and Civil Law," they are as mystified upon 
the subject of "the new birth" as Nicodemus himself. But to those 
who understand "the word of the kingdom" these "heavenly things" 
are distinguished by the obviousness and simplicity of truth. To be 
born again, as the Lord Jesus expounds it, is to be " born of water 
and the sjoirit ;" as it is written, " Except a man be born out of water 
(e^ vcarog) and of spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of 
God.":? This is surely very explicit and very intelligible ; who can 
misunderstand it, unless it be against his will to receive it ? 

The New Birth, like the old one of the flesh, is not an abstract 
principle, but a process. It begins with the begettal and ends with 
the having been borU: A son of God is a character, which is developed 
out of the " incorruptible seed "'^ of God, sown into the fleshy table 
of the heart.' When this seed, or word of the Kingdom, is received, 
it begins to work in a man until he becomes a believer of the truth. 
When things have come to this pass, he is a changed man. He has 
acquired a new mode of thinking ; for he thinks in harmony with the 

a 2 Pet. i. 4. ^ Acts xviii. 8. <" 2 Cor. v. 21. <^' ,Ter. xxiii. 6. « 1 Cor. i. 30. 
/ Col. ii. 10-J2. iJ Jolm iii. 3-10. h i Pet. i. 23. ^ Matt. xiii. 19. 



THE ACT OF OBEDIENCE. 123 

thou gilts of God as revealed in His law and testimony. He sees himself, 
and the world around him, in a new light. He is convinced of sin ; 
and experiences an aversion to the things in which he formerly de- 
lighted. His views, disposition, temper, and affections are transformed. 
He is humble, child-like, teachable, and obediently disposed ; and his 
simple anxiety is to know what God would have him to do. Having 
ascertained this, he does it ; and in doing it is " horn out of the water.'" 
Having been begotten of the Father by the word of truth,'* and born 
of water, the first stage of the process is completed. He is constitutionally 
" in Christ." 

When a child is born, the next thing is to train him up in the 
way he should go, that when he is old he may not depart from it. This 
is also the arrangement of God in relation to those who are born out 
of water into His family on earth. He disciplines and tries them, that 
He may " exalt them in due time." Having believed the gospel and 
been baptized, sach a person is required to " walk worthy of the 
vocation," or calling, "wherewith he has been called,"^ that by so 
doing he maj^ be " accounted worthy " of being " born of spirit," that 
he may become " spirit," or a spiritual body ; and so enter the kingdom 
of God, crowned with " glory, honour, incorruptibility, and life."'' When, 
therefore, such a believer comes cut of the ground by a resurrection 
from among the dead, the spirit of God, worked by the Lord Jesus, 
first opens the grave, and forms him in the image, and after the like- 
ness of Christ ; and then gives him life. He is then an incorruptible 
and living man, " equal to the angels ; " and like them capable of 
reflecting the glory of him. that made him. This is the end of the 
process. He is like Jesus himself, the great exemplar of God's family, 
born out of water by the moral power of the troth ; and out of the 
grave by the physical power of spirit ; but all things of God through 
Jesus Christ the Lord. ' 

In the way described, sinners are transformed into saints ; and it is 
the only way ; . their conversion being the result of the transformins" 
influence of " the testimony of God." Those who are ignorant of 
" the law and the testimony," and who yet claim to be saints, and 
" teachers of divine mysteries," m_ay demur in toto to this conclusion, 
because " in saying this thou condemnest us also." But truth knows 
no respect of persons ; and while the oracles of God declare, that men 
are " renewed by knowledge," and " alienated from the life of God 
through ignorance," I feel entrenched impregnably in the position here 
assumed. According to the constitution of the human intellect, the 
knowledge of truth must precede the belief of it. There is no excep- 
tion to this. If cases be cited as exceptions, the faith is spurious, and 
not that with which God is pleased. It is credulity ; the faith of 
opinion, such as characterises the spiritual philosophy of the age. 

Lastly, the act demanded of a renewed sinner by the constitution 
of righteousness, that he may be inducted into Christ, and so " con- 
stituted the righteousness of God in him," is a hurial in ivater into 
death. The energy of the word of truth is twofold. It makes a 
man " dead to sin " and " alive to God." Now, as Christ died to sin 

« James i. 18. ^' Eph. iv. 1. <• Rom. ii. 7. 



124 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

once and was buried, so the believer, having become dead to sin, must 
be buried also ; for after death burial. The death and burial of the 
believer is connected with the death and burial of Christ by the 
individual's faith in the testimony concerning them. Hence, he is said 
to be " dead with Christ," and to be " buried with Christ ; " but, how 
buried ? ''By baptism into death,'' saith the scripture. 

But is this all? By no means ; for the object of the burial in 
water is not to extinguish animal life ; but, by preserving it, to afford 
the believer scope to " walk in newness of life," moral and intellectual. 
He is, therefore, raised up out of the water. This action is representa- 
tive of his faith in the resurrection of Jesus ; and of his hope, that 
as he had been planted with him in the similitude of his death, he 
shall hereafter be also in the likeness of his resurrection," and so enter 
the kingdom of God. To such persons the scripture saith, " Ye are 
all sons of God in Christ Jesus through the faith ; " and the ground 
of this honourable and divine relationship is assigned in these words ; 
" For as many of you as have been baptised into Christ have put 
on Christ ; and if ye be Christ's, then are ye the seed of Abraham, 
and heii's according to the promise."^ They have thus received the 
spirit of adoption by which they can address God as their Father who 
is in heaven. 

THE TWO PRINCIPLES. 

" With, the niind I myself serve the Law of God ; but with the flesh the Law of Sin." 

Although a sinner may have been " delivered from the power of 
darkness," or ignorance, and have been " translated into "" the hope 
of " the Kingdom of God and of his Christ,"'^ by faith in the divine 
testimony and baptism into Christ — yet, if he turn his thoughts back 
into his own heart, and note the impulses which work there, he will 
perceive a something that, if he were to yield to it, would impel him 
to the violation of the divine law. These impulses are styled " the 
motions of sins.''^ Before he was enlightened, they " worked in his 
members," until they were manifested in evil action, or sin ; which is 
termed, "bringing forth fruit unto death." The remote cause of these 
*' motions " is that physical principle, or quality, of the flesh, styled 
indwelling sin, which returns the mortal body to the dust ; and that 
which excites the latent disposition is the law of God forbidding to do 
thus and so ; for, " I had not known sin, but by the law." 

Now, while a righteous man feels this law involuntarily at work in 
his members, the -law of sin, or of nature within him, he also perceives 
there a something which condemns "the motions of sins," and 
supi^resses them ; so that they shall not impel him to do what he ought 
not to do. The best of men — and I quote Paul as an illustration of 
the class — are conscious of the co-existence of these hostile principles 
within them. "I find," says he, "a law that, when I would do good, 
evil is present with me." Yes ; the principle of evil and the principle 
of good are the two laws which abide in the saints of God so long as 
they continue subject to mortality. 

" Rom. vi. 3-n. ^ Gal. iii. 2G-29. ■ <•- Col. i. 13. '' Rev. xi. 15. 
'' Rom. vii. 5. 



NO " LIGHT WITHIN." 125 

The reader is invited to re-perase pages eighty and eighty-one on 
the subject of these laws, as it will prevent repetition in this place. 

The law of sin and death is hereditary, and derived from the 
federal sinner of the race ; but the law of the mind is an intellectual 
and moral acquisition. The law of sin pervades every particle of the 
flesh ; but in the thinking flesh it reigns especially in the propensities. 
In the savage, it is the only law to wdiich he is subject ; so that with 
his flesh he serves only the law of sin and death. This is to him " the 
light ivithin ; " which is best illustrated by the darkness of Egypt, 
which might be felt. It was this internal light which illuminated 
" the princes of the world, who crucified the Lord of glory." It 
shined forth in the philosophy of Plato, and in the logic of Aristotle, 
who w^alked in it while " dMelling in the land of the shadow of 
death ;"'* and it is " the light within " all babes who are born of 
blood, of the will of the flesh, and of man under the constitution of 
sin in all countries of the world. 

Now, the scripture saith, " The commandment of God is a lamp ; 
and his law is light ;"^ so that the prophet says, " Thy word is a lamp 
unto my feet, and a light unto my path."" And to this agrees the 
saying of the apostle, that the sure word of prophecy is " a light that 
shineth in a dark place. "'^ Now, Isaiah testifies, that the Word is made 
up of God's law and testimony, and that those who do not speak 
according to it, have no light in them.^ This is the reason that the 
savage has no light in him ; because he is intensely ignorant of the 
law of God. Light does not emanate from within ; for sin, blood, and 
flesh can give out none. It can only reflect it after the fashion of a 
mirror. The light is not in the mirror ; but its surface is so constituted 
that when light falls upon it, it can throw it back, or reflect it, according 
to the law of light, that the images of objects are seen on the surface, 
whence the light proceeding from the objects is last reflected to the 
eye. Neither is light innate in the heart. This is simply a tablet; a 
polished tablet, or mirror, in some ; but a tarnished, rusty tablet in 
others. It is called " the fleshy tablet of the heart." It was polished 
in the beginning, when God formed man after His likeness ; but sin, 
" the god of this world," hath so tarnished it that there are but few 
who reflect His similitude. 

No ; it is a mere conceit of the fleshly mind that man is born into 
the world with light within ; which requires only to be cherished to 
be sufiicient to guide him in the right way. God only is the source of 
light ; He is the glorious illuminator of the moral universe ; and He 
transmits His enhghtening radiance through the medium sometimes of 
angels, sometimes of prophets, and at others through that of His Son 
and the apostles, by His all-pervading Spirit. Hence it is that the 
scripture saith, " God is light," whose truth " enlightens the eyes." But 
what is the truth? It is " the light of the glorious gospel of Christ," 
who is the polished incorruptible fleshly mirror, which reflects the 
Image of God — an image, at present, but obscurely impressed upon the 
fleshy tablets of our hearts ; because we know only in part, perceiving 

«Isaiali ix. 2. ^'Prov. vi. 23. '^Fsahn cxix. 105. ^2 Pet. i. 19. 
« Isaiah vih. 20. 



126 EUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

things by the eye of faith, until hope shall disappear in the jDossession 
of the prize. 

God, then, is the source of light ; the gospel of the kingdom in the 
name of Jesus is the light; and Christ is the medium through which 
it shines ; hence he is styled the Sun of Righteousness ; also, " the 
true light, which enlighteneth every man, that cometh into the 
world ;" "a light to enlighten the Gentiles, and the glory of his 
people Israel." Now, the enlightening of every man is thus explained 
by the apostle: "God," saith he, "who commanded the light to 
shine out of darkness, it is he who hath shined into our (the saints') 
hearts, with the illumination of the knowledge [Trpog (jyiorta/jioy t^q 
yvu)(reu)Q) of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."" But 
^' every man " is not enlightened by this glorious knowledge ; for to 
some it is hid. The tablets of their hearts are so corroded and 
■encrusted with opaque and sordid matter that they are destitute of all 
reflecting power. Light will not shine in a black surface. Hence, 
saith the apostle, " If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are 
lost : in whom the god of the world hath blinded the minds of them 
who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should 
shine into them."^ He darkens the tablets of their hearts by " the 
care of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches ; "" and thus prevents 
them from opening their ears to hear the words of eternal life. 

If a man have light, then, it is very evident that it is acquired 
from without, and not an hereditary spark within. When the Lord 
Jesus appeared in Israel " he shined in the darkness." This nation 
"was so darkened by the propensities and human tradition, that they 
•did not perceive the light when it shined among them ; " the dark- 
ness comprehended it not."^ If this were the condition of Israel, how 
intensely dark must have been the world at large. Still the Gentile 
mind was not so totally eclipsed as that of the savage. The nations 
of the Four Empires had been greatly mixed up with the Israelites 
in their history ; so that the light of their law must have been con- 
siderably diffused among them ; though not given to them for their 
•obedience. Hence, " the work of the law was written upon their 
hearts" to some extent; and created in them "a conscience," by the 
thoughts of which the^^ accused or excused one another.'' 

This shining of the truth in the darkness of the nations was con- 
siderably increased by the apostolic labours ; for " their sound went 
into all the land, and their words unto the ends of the habitable " 
{Tr]Q oiKoviJLevrjc, or Roman Empire)J Now, although this light was 
almost extinguished by the apostasy, lamps were still kept burning in 
its presence ;■' so that the eclipse was not so total as that the darkness 
of the Gentile mind was reduced to a savage state. When the scrip- 
tures were again disseminated in the tongues of the nations in the 
sixteenth century, the light of truth began again to stream in upon 
them. The scriptures were then like a book just fallen from heaven. 
Tlie world was astonished at their contents ; but " comprehended them 
not." Men discussed it, tortured it, perverted it, fought about it ; 

« 2 Cor. iv. 6. ^ 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. « Matt, xni 22. d John i. 5. '^ Rom. ii. 14, 15. 
/Rom. X. 18. .'/Rev. xi. 4. 



THE PRESENT COiTOITION OF " THE CHURCH." 127 

■antil tlie stronger party established tlie foundation of the world as at 
present constituted. 

This world, called " Christendom," is much after the order of 
things in the days of Jesus. Were he to appear now, he would " shine 
in the darkness " as when among the Jews. These professed to know 
God, while in works they denied Him. Their clergy said, " We see ; " 
but Jesus characterised them as " blind leaders of the blind ; " there- 
fore, " their sin remained." They boasted in the law ; yet through 
breaking it, dishonoured God. They professed to be more conscientious 
and pious than Jesus ; but he charged them with being hypocrites and 
serpents. They strained out gnats, and swallowed camels ; and gave 
tithe of mint and cummin, and despoiled the fatherless and the widow. 
And, " like priest like people." They crowded to the synagogues and 
the temple in splendid apparel. The bejewelled worshippers exhibited 
themselves in conspicuous seats ; while the poor stood, or if seat(3d, sat 
on footstools near the door. They made a great show of piety, sang 
the psalms of David with holy rapture, devoutly listened to the reading 
of the law and the prophets ; and expelled Jesus and his apostles with 
great fury from their midst, when they showed the meaning of them. 
With the worship of God they combined the worship of Mammon. 
They heaped up gold and silver, and apparel till it was moth eaten ; 
oppressed the hireling in his wages ; and ground the faces of the poor. 

Such was the state of " the church " while Jesus and his apostles 
were members of it ; and such is its condition now that " He standeth 
at the door, and knocks." " The Church " of the 19th century, by 
which I understand, not the " One Body ; ""^ but that thousand-headed 
monster presented by the ecclesiastical aggregate of " Christendom ;" is 
that Laodicean antitype which is neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm, 
and which saith, " I am rich, and increased in goods, and have need of 
nothing ; but knows not that it is wretched, and miserable, and poor, 
and blind, and naked ;"'' the sputa once " spewed out of the Lord's 
mouth." Its eyes are blinded by the god of the world. Its zeal for 
faction ; its devotion to Mammon ; its ignorance of the scriptures ; 
and its subjection to the dogmas and commandments of men — have 
made its heart fat, its ears heavy, and closed its eyes. " The people of 
the Lord, the people of the Lord, are we ! " ascends as its cry to heaven 
from myriads of throats ; but in the tablets of their hearts the light of 
the glorious gospel of Christ's kingdom and name, finds no surface of 
reflection. Many who mean well, lament " the decline of spirituality in 
the churches ;" but they fail to perceive the cause. The scriptures have 
fallen into comparative disuse among them. They are superseded by shal- 
low speculations — mere unintelligible pulpit disquisitions, the contradic- 
tory thinking of the flesh, trained to excogitate the creedism of the com- 
munity that glorifies, itself in the orator of its choice. The gospel is 
neither helieved nor preached in the churches. In fact, it is hid from 
their eyes ; and the time is come to break off the wild olive branch for 
its saplessness ; to cut off these churches for their unbelief.'' 

The principle, or spirit, that works in these children of disobedi- 
ence, is neither the law of sin as exhibited in the savage ; nor the law 
of God as it appears in the genuine disciples of Christ. It is a blending 

a Eph. iv. 4. ^ Rev. iii. 17. <= Rom. xi. 20, 22, 25. 



128 RUDIME?TTS OF THE WORLD. 

of the two ; so as to make of none effect" the little truth believed, as 
far as inheriting the Kingdom of God is concerned. This proportion 
of truth in the public mind is the measure of its morality, and exe- 
getical of its conscience ; and constitates that scintillation, or " light 
within," which is struck out by the collision of ideas in the world 
around. Educational bias makes men what they are — sinners, whose 
habitude of thought and action is *' pious," or impious, civilised or 
savage, according to the school in which their young ideas have been 
taught to shoot. The divine law and testimony alone can tarn these 
into reflectors of the moral image and similitude of God. 

The " intellect " and " sentiments " of the apostle's brain, consti- 
tuting " the fleshly tablet of his heart," had been inscribed by the 
Spirit of the living God, in a wa}^ that all believers are not the sub- 
ject of. He was inspired ; and consequently received much of " the 
light of the knowledge of the glory of God " by divine suggestion, 
or revelation ;^ others receive the same knowledge, in words spoken, 
or written, by " earthen vessels " like himself, in whom " this treasure " 
was deposited.'' The means by which the knowledge is communicated 
matters not, so that it is written on the heart. When it gets possession 
of this, it forms that " mind,'' or mode of thinking and feeling (vovq) 
with which the apostle said he " served the Law of God." Being 
renewed by the divine testimony, his intellect and sentiments were sure 
to think and feel in harmony with the thoughts of God. Nevertheless, 
his " propensities " were only checked in their emotions. He l^iept his 
body under. This was all that he could do ; for no spiritual perfection 
of thought and feeling could eradicate from the particles of his flesli 
the all-pervading principle of its corruption. While, therefore, with 
his mind he serv^ed the Law of God ; his flesh obeyed the law of sin, 
which finally mingled it with its parent dust. 

This new mode of thinking and feeling created in a true believer by 
the divine law and testimony, is variously designated in scripture. It 
is styled " a clean heart and a right spirit ;"^ " a new spirit " and " a 
heart of flesh ;"'^ the "inward man;"^" " new creature ;"» " the new^ 
man created in righteousness and true holiness ;" and "renewed unto 
knowledge after the image of him that created him;"'' the "hidden 
man of the heart ;"' and so forth. This new and hidden man is 
manifested in the life, which is virtuous as becomes the gospel. He 
delights in the law of the Lord, and speaks often of His testimonies. He 
denies himself of all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and walks soberly, 
righteously and godly in the world. His hope is the glorious mani- 
festation of Jesus Christ, with the crown of righteousness, even glory, 
honour, and immortality, promised to all who look for him, and " love 
his appearing," and desire his kingdom.' Nevertheless, the law of sin, 
through the w^eakness of the flesh, fails not to remind him of imperfec- 
tion. Being delivered from the fear of death, he looks forward to it as to 
the period of his change, knowing that, w^hen he falls asleep in the dust, 
lie will afterwards be delivered from the principle of evil by a resurrection 
to incorruptibility and unalloyed existence in the Paradise of God. 

" Matt. XV. G, 9. f> Gal. i. 11, 12. ^2 Cor. iv. 7. '« Psalm li. 10. <= Ezek. xi. 19. 
/ 2 Cor. iv. 16 ; Rom. vii. 22. u 2 Cor. v. 17. '' Eph. iv. 24 ; Col. iii. 10. 
i 1 Pet. iii. 4. i Titus ii. 11-14 ; 2 Tim. iv. 1, 8 ; Heb. ix. 28. 



IMMORTALITY, RELIGION, " CLERGY " AND " LAITY." 12f> 



CHAPTER V. 

IMMORTALITY, RELIGION, "CLERGY" AND "LAITY." 

Immortality in tlie present state a positive evil. — Immortality in misery nnscrip- 
tural. — The professing world religious from fear. — The world's religions useful 
as a system of Ecclesiastical Police.— The Religion of Christ destitute of all 
worldly goods till his return, when it will possess all things. — The doctrine of 
immortality a divine revelation. — The Heathens baffled in their endeavours to 
discover it. — The Mosaic Cherubim God's throne in Israel. — The Cherubim of 
Ezekiel and John. — The Cherubic Veil. — The Faces of the Lord. — The Flaming- 
Sword. — Illustrated by Ezekiel's description of the glory of the God of Israel. 
— The brightness of the Spiritual Body. — The Way of the Tree of Life. — The 
etymology of the word religion. — False religion based upon the idea of 
appeasing the wrath of God. — God already reconciled to the world. — The 
" Word of Reconciliation " committed to the apostles in the beginning. — 
■ The apostles the only ambassadors of Christ. — "The word" preached by the 
apostles entrusted to the disciples of Christ. — "Clergy" and "Laity" 
distinctions of the apostasy, — Religion defined. — Its grand desideratmn. — 
No true religion without belief of the truth. — The word "faith" scriptiirally 
defined. — How faith comes. — The " religious world " infidel of " the faith." — 
" Love " scripturally defined by " obedience." — The religious world destitiite 
of the Spirit of God. — -Religion contemporary only with sin. — Sunmiary of 
principles. 

The Lord God, liaving arranged the foundation of the world, in the 
sentences pronounced upon the transgressors ; and commenced the 
preparation of the kingdom in the stipulations of the New Law : 
decreed their expulsion from the garden eastward in Eden. As the 
Serpent had said, the man had become " as the gods," or Elohim, 
"to know good and evil," in consequence of eating the forbidden 
fruit. He had known good only in his novitiate ; but, being lifted 
up with pride, he had fallen into the condemnation of the devil," and 
had come to know also by experience both sorrow and pain. This 
was a great calamity ; but not so great as that a greater might not 
befall him, even in Paradise. He had eaten of one tree, and his 
presumjotion might cause him to take and eat of the other. The 
consequences of this eating, superadded to the first, would have ren- 
dered his situation still more deplorable than it was. He now knew 
evil, as the Elohim had done before him ; but there was hope of 
deliverance from it when he should return to the dust whence he was 
taken ; but if he should eat of the Tree of the Lives, this hope would 
be cut off ; and he woald live for ever the subject of weeping, sorrow, 
and pain. The misery of being the subject of evil for ever is forcibly 
expressed by Job. When reduced to the deepest distress, he laments, 
saying, " When I say, my bed shall comfort me, my couch shall 
ease my complaint ; then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest 
me through visions ; so that my soul chooseth strangling, and death 
rather than my life. I loathe it ; I loould not live ahoay : let me 

« 1 Tim. iii. 6. 



130 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

alone ; for my days are vanity."" But, if Adam had eaten of the 
Tree of Life, when reduced to such misery as this, he would have 
sought death, but it would have fled from him. He would have 
found no deliverance. This, however, wo aid not have been the worst 
of it. He would have involved all his posterity in the same intermin- 
able calamity. The earth would at length have become crowded with 
undying generations of sensual and devilish men ; who, if any virtue 
should survive, would afflict it a hundredfold. For this awful 
consummation there would have been no remedy but to break up the 
fountains of the abyss, and cast them down under chains of intense 
darkness, after the example of the terrene angels who sinned under a 
previous constitution of the globe. 

But the repetition of the scenes of the pre-Adamic drama was 
not designed, although men were afterwards permitted to imitate it 
with a similar result ; with this difference, however, that the race of 
the angels was one generation, while that of men was composed of 
many. To prevent, then, the replenishment of the earth with undying 
sinners, the Lord God said to the Elohim, " Behold, the man has 
hecome as one of us, to know good and evil : and now lest lie put 
forth his hand and take also of the Tree of the Lives, and eat, and 
live for ever : therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden 
of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he dro\'e 
out the man." 

This is a very remarkable passage of scripture. It contains much 
in few words. The points which stand out, shining like two stars, 
are the acknowledgment that man had hecome as the gods by his 
offence ; and, secondly, that he was expelled from Paradise that he 
might not live for ever. I shall defer to another place the exposition 
of the things suggested by his god-likeness in evil ; and after what 
has been already said on the tree of lives, but little need be added 
respecting his exclusion from present immortality. I would, however, 
so far anticipate another part of this work as to say here, that the 
finality of creation, providence, and redemption is, man upon the earth, 
glorious, honourable, and. immortal, in a state of unmingled good. It 
was because God loved man, and out of mercy to him, that He drove 
him out of the garden. Had He been actuated by malignity (a feeling, 
by-the-bye, that has no place in the heart of God), He would have left 
him free to involve himself in everlasting miser}^ by eating of the 
tree of lives. But He did not create the man for such a destiny ; nor 
did He subject his posterity to evil by a stern necessity, that it might 
in any mode of existence be consigned to interminable torment of 
mind, or body, or of both. 

The creed that inculcates this is God-dishonouring, and expresses 
the foolish thoughts of sinfal flesh, unenlightened by His law and 
testimony. It is the vaporing of the pagan mind, adopted by the 
Apostasy, and transfused into the symbols of its credulity. As it knows 
not how to display the divine character in any other light than the 
proi:)ensities, the faintly-illumined intellect, and the jDerverted senti- 
ments of the flesh exhibit, it presents God to the sons of men as more 

« Job vii. 13. 



THE RELIGIOUS WORLD RULED BY TERROR. 131 

like the Saturn, or Moloch, of the heathens, who devoured their own 
offspring, in shrieks and groans, than as one who so loves the 
world that He beseeches it to be reconciled to Him :'^ and to accept, 
without money or price, the exceeding great and precious things 
He has in store. Thus the " religious world " is ruled by terror. The 
little faith it professes, works not by love'' to the purification of its 
heart \'^ but by the unceasing apprehension of burning in molten lava 
through endless ages. It works by "fear, which hath torment," and 
debases the soul ; so that were it not for its fears, it would be honest 
and confess that it cared neither for God nor His religion. But there 
is no fear in love ; for perfect love casteth out fear. The world of 
professors, therefore, deceives itself in supposing that it loves God. 
" He that feareth is not made perfect in love."'^ It loves Him not, for 
its conscience is defiled. " Love is the fulfilling of the law." Its 
" doubts and fears " demonstrate its consciousness of sin uncovered ; 
and that it either knows not what the truth is, or knowing it, neglects, 
or refuses, to obey it. It is an egregious contradiction to confess with 
the same breath that we love God and are yet afraid of Him ! Was 
Adam afraid of God so long as he continued obedient ? As soon, 
however, as he sinned, fear seized upon him, and he fled from the 
sound of His voice, and hid himself. The righteous man's fear of 
God is the fear of offending one he loves. God is terrible only to 
His enemies. His sons and daughters confide in Him with the 
affection of children ; and He protects them with all the love and 
jealousy of His holy and blessed name. 

Being ignorant of " the exceeding great and precious promises " 
relating to the kingdom of God, the leaders of the people know not 
in what other way to move them to " get religion," as their phrase is. 
Hence, they pretend to preach " the terrors of the law." But " religion" 
got by such a process is worth nothing. Nay ; I will retract this. It 
is worth something. A religion of terror, so long as it is believed, is 
useful as a system of ecclesiastical police ; which, associated with the 
civil and military forces, assists materially in keeping the world in 
awe. But for the fear of what may be hereafter, professors would be 
as lawless as the antediluvian giants ; and thus, by the ecclesiastical 
antagonism of society being destroyed, the earth would be filled with 
violence as before the flood. Superstition is useful in maintaining 
order until tlie period shall arrive to supersede it by " wisdom and 
knowledge," which will be the stability of the times pertaining to the 
kingdom of God." But as a means of inheriting this kingdom, and of 
entitling men to the crown of righteousness, a religion which works by 
terror is utterly worthless. Remove the terror, and the religion's 
gone ; except in so far, indeed, as the possession of it is necessary to 
the preservation of its" temporalities," "vested interests," and worldly 
advantages. 

But the " pure and undefiled religion " of God has no present 
temporalities, or worldly interests. It has no " lands, tenements and 
hereditaments ; " nor " states," colleges, or " sacred edifices." It is 

« 2 Cor. V. 19, 20. '' GaL v. G. « A-ts xv. 9. '^ 1 Jolni ir. 17, 18. 
e Isaiali xsxii. 6. 



132 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

like the Son of God in the days of his flesh ; homeless, houseless, and 
poverty-stricken among the sons of men. It has great riches, and 
good things in store for the poor in this world loho are rich in 
faith;"' it promises them the possession of the world ^ with all the 
honour, and glory, and riches of it, with endless life for the enjoyment 
of them ; but it requires faith in God with filial obedience to His law, 
in a time of tribulation'^ as the condition of the inheritance. 

It is perfectly absurd to imagine, that men who are revelling 
in all the luxuries, conveniences, and comforts of life ; enjoying the 
honour, glory, and friendship of the world, as do the ecclesiastics of 
antichristendom in their several ranks, orders, and degrees ; to 
suppose, I say, that such can inherit the Kingdom of God with Jesus, 
and that " cloud of witnesses," of whom Paul says " the world was 
not worthy," is preposterous. If men would reign with Christ they 
must believe his doctrine, and suffer wdth him,'^ in enduring persecu- 
tion for the word's sake." They must separate themselves from " the 
churches," both State and Nonconformist, which have a name to live, 
but are dead in trespasses and sins. The whole system is rotten ; and 
awaits only the manifestation of the Lord's presence to be abolished 
wdth signal marks of his displeasure. Therefore, let all honest men, 
lay and clerical, who shall believe the truth, come out from amoug 
them, and be separate. Better stand alone for the Kingdom of God's 
sake, than be numbered with the multitude in the day of Christ, who 
will be denied permission to "eat of the tree of life and live for 
ever." 

When man was expelled from Paradise, the Lord God, apprehend- 
ing some new act of presumption, placed a guard over the tree of 
lives. This tree, it will be remembered, was planted in the midst of 
the garden. Now, when Adam was driven out, " the Lord placed at 
the east of the garden of Eden, cherubim, and a flaming sicord which 
turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." This would 
seem to indicate that Adam was driven out in an easterly direction ; 
had he gone westward, the tree of life would have been between him 
and the Cherubim ; so that it would still have appeared accessible, 
and have tempted him to try to get at it ; which would doubtless 
have been his destruction. The cherubim and sword were to guard 
the Way of the Tree, so that it could not be approached. If they were 
disposed to make a circuit to avoid the Cherubim, the flaming sword, 
or devouring flame, flashed on every side ; "it turned every way to 
keep it " from being invaded by their presumption. 

From this arrangement, they either saw the tree of life no more ; 
or, saw it only in the distance. The latter is the more jorobable. The 
sight of it from time to time would remind them of what they had 
lost ; and, from what they had learned of the effect producible upon 
the eater of its fruit, it suggested the possibility of mortal man 
putting on immortality. This was a thing to be desired. But they 
could not get at the tree ; how could they then attain it ? There 
were but two of them, and neither of them could answer the question. 

" James ii. 5. ^ 1 Cor. iii. 22. c Acts xiv. 2^; 2 Tim. iii. 12. ^? 2 Tim. ii. 12. 
e Mark x. 29-30 : Luke xviii. 29. 



THE FABLES OF THE HEATm:is^. 133 

There were no scriptures testifying to them as to us, " this is the way, 
walk ye in it." They were ignorant of " the way leading unto 
life" ;" and, if they had not been ''taught of God,''' they would have 
remained ignorant of it for ever. The thinking of the flesh could 
never have discovered it ; for the obtaining of immortality'- involved 
the belief and x^ractice of things which it was utterly impossible for 
the heart of man to conceive. 

We have an illustration of this in the endeavour of the heathen 
philosophers to solve the problem. Being ignorant of God's know- 
ledge, they ran into the most absurd speculations. They thought that 
immortality was a sort of ghost inside of a man that went to the 
fields of Elysium when death dissolved its union with the body. They 
regarded this innate principle as a particle of the divine essence from 
which proceeded all virtuous actions ; while vice was the natural result 
of the operation of the matter of the body, which was essentially 
malignant. The apostle refers to this in part when he says, " Profess- 
ing themselves to be wise, they became fools. "^ Hence, he st3des "the 
wisdom of the wise" "foolishness;" and, as the Corinthians had 
received the gospel of the kingdom, which teaches a very different 
doctrine, he inquires of them, "Hath not God made foolish the wisdom 
of the world ? "'^ Has He not shown the absurdity of their speculations 
about " souls,'' " immortality," and " the nature of the gods?" 

They had no idea of inmiortality being conferred only upon men 
who might be accounted worthy of a certain kingdom. This was a 
doctrine which the flesh, with all its thinking, and with all its logic, 
had no conception of. It never thought of the kingdom of God and 
the name of a parti cu.lar personage, as the channel through which 
immortality was to flow. It was lost in reveries about Elysium and 
Tartarus : and the river Styx which flowed between them ; and about 
Charon and his ferry-boat ; and ghosts ; and three-headed Cerberus ; 
and the snake-haired furies ; and Pluto " king of hfeU." But of " glory, 
honour, incorruptibility, and life," an incorruptible and undefiled 
inheritance, the recompense of reward to the subjects of a righteous- 
ness by faith — of such a "prize " as this, to be sought after by doing 
the will of God, they were as utterly ignorant as an unborn babe. 
Well might the apostle say in the language of the prophet, " Eye hath 
not seen, ear hath not heard, neither have entered into the heart of 
men, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But 
God hath revealed them to us by his sj)irit :"'^ that is, to those who 
received the gospel of the kingdom. 

Immortality, then, and the loay to it, are things about which man 
must have remained for ever ignorant, so long as their discovery 
depended upon the thinking of the flesh. In other words, they are 
matters purely of divine testimony ; and as faith is the belief of 
testimony, men can have no faith in them beyond what is stated in 
the written word of God. The carnal mind, by reflecting upon its 
own consciousness, may be " of opinion " that what it terms " I myself " 
is immaterial heeause it thinks, and " therefore immortal ;" but beyond 
this it can never go. Opinion implies doubt ; for if a matter be beyond 

« Matt. vii. 14. ^Rom. i. 22. <^- 1 Cor. i. 20. '^ 1 Cor. ii. 9-16. 



134 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

doubt, it is no longer opinion, but faith or knowledge. Where, then, 
is the man, be he philosopher or theologist, who can demonstrate the 
existence of an "immortal soul" in the animal man, by a "thus it is 
written," or a "thus saith the Lord?" A few phrases in scripture 
may be twisted, and tortured into an inference — which, however, 
becomes lighter than vanity before the direct testimonies of the word 
to the contrary. With these words, then, by way of preface, I shall 
proceed to offer a few remarks upon 

THE CHERUBIM. 

But little is said about the Cherubim in the Mosaic narrative. The 
word is a plural noun, and represents therefore more objects than one. 
But, in what did this plurality consist? T should say, judging from 
a text in the next chapter, that it had especial regard to a plurality 
of faces ; for when the Lord God sentenced Cain to a fugitive and 
vagabond life, the fratricide answered, " Behold, then, from thy 
FACES ('plural in the Hehreiop shall I be hid."" That is, " I shall no 
more be permitted to come before the Cherubic faces, which thou 
hast placed at the east of the garden, to present an offering for my 
sin." As he truly observed, "mine iniquity is greater than that it 
may be forgiven." He was exiled from the Faces of God still further 
to the east as a murderer doomed to eternal death^ as the end of his 
career. 

That the faces were connected with the Cherubim seems unques- 
tionable from other passages of Scripture where cherubim are 
described. The Lord spoke of them to Moses in the mount. Having 
commanded him to make an ark, or open chest, overlaid with gold, 
with a crown along its upper margin, he said, " Thou shalt make a 
mercy-seat of pure gold. And thou shalt make tico cherubim of beaten 
gold in the two ends of the mercy-seat." In another place, this is 
explained thus — " Out of the mercy-seat made he the cherubim on 
the two ends thereof." Then it is continued, " And the cherubim 
shall stretch forth icings on high, covering the mercy-seat with their 
wings, and their faces one to another, toward the mercy-seat shall the 
faces of the cherubim be. And thou shalt put the mercy-seat abovs 
upon the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall 
give thee."" 

It is probable, that the reason why Moses gave no description of 
them in Genesis was, because he intended to speak more particularly 
when he came to record their introduction into the most holy place 
of the tabernacle. In the text above recited, they are described as 
having wings and faces ; and being made out of the same piece of 
gold as the mercy-seat, upon which they looked down, beholding, as 
it were, the blood sprinkled upon it ; it is evident, they were symbols 
connected with the institution of atonement for sin through the 
shedding of blood. But they were still more significative. They 

« Gen. iv. 14. ^ 1 John iii. 15. <= Exod. xxv. 10-21. 

* Tlie word is plural only in the Hebrew; 'even in the case of Jacob and the 
angel (Gen. xxxii. 30— Comjiare also Ezek. s. 14). 



MOSES, EZEKIlilL, AM) JOHN ON THE CHERUBIM. 135 

were God's throne in Israel. Hence, tlie psalmist saith, " The Lord 
reignetli ; he sitteth between the cherubim." This throne was erected 
upon mercy ; and for this reason it was, that the covering of the ark 
containing the testimony, the manna," and the resurrected rod,^ was 
styled the Mercy -seat, or throne, where the Lord covered the sins of 
the people. It was also the Oracle, or place from which God com- 
muned with Israel through Moses. " There," said the Lord, " wilL I 
meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy- 
seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the Ark ot 
Testimou}^, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto- 
the Children of Israel." 

But, though Moses informs as of two cherubim with a plurality 
of faces and wings each,-'- he does not tell us what kind of faces, or 
how many wings they had. This deficiency, however, seems to be 
supplied by Ezekiel. Those he saw had each of them four faces and 
four toings ; a human body with feet like a calf's, and the hands of 
a man under their wings. Of their faces, one was like a man's ; 
a second, like a lion's ; a third, like that of an ox ; and a fourth, like 
an eagle's. The things of his first chapter taken collectively, evidently 
represent the Messiah upon his throne, surrounded hy his saints, and 
all energized and made glorious hy the Spirit of God. The rings of 
Ezekiel's wheels were full of eyes ; but in the cherubim which John 
saw, the wheels were not introduced, but two more wings were added, 
and the eyes were transferred to the six wings." In this place, the 
cherubim are styled " beasts," more properly living creatures (ra ^ioa) ; 
and are associated with "twenty-four elders." 

Now, by attending to w^hat is affirmed of them in another place, 
we shall see who are represented by the four cherubim of Ezekiel with 
four faces each, and their wheels ; and the four of John with one 
different face each, and twenty-four typical elders. It is written, that 
" they fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, 
and golden vials full of odours, which are (or represent) the prayers of 
the saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to 
take the book, and to open the seals thereof : for thou wast slain, and 
hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and 
tongue, and people, and nation ; and hast made us unto our God 
kings and priests ; and we shall reign on earth J '^ From this it is 
evident, that the cherubim, dec, represent the aggregate of those 
redeemed from the nations, in their resurrection state. The Lamb, 
the four cherabs, and the twenty-four elders, are a symbolical repre- 

« Exocl. xvi. 33 ; John vi. 33. * Numb. xvii. 8 ; Isaiah, xi. 1. " Rev. iv. 8. 

d Rev. V. 8-10. 

* They would of necessity have two wings each ; btit the Scripture does not 
here specify a plurality of faces each (Ex. xxv., xxxvii.). We read of " the face of 
a cherub " (Ezek. x.). " The cherubim " of Eden (Gen. iii. 24 — R.V.) appear to be 
the angels (compare the incident of Balaam, Num. xxii. 31) ; those of Moses and 
Solomon were manufactured figxires of divine specification, that ritually represented 
men of God made one in Christ and " equal unto the angels." The cherubim and 
living creatures of Ezekiel and John represent this " one body " in the relations 
here graphically described by Dr. Thomas. 



136 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

sentation of what is expressed by the phrase, " them that are 
sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints " ; that is, those who have 
been constituted the righteousness of God in Christ in a glorified 
state. 

The cherubim are the federal symbol ; and the eyes, repre- 
sentative of the individuals constituted in him who is signified by the 
Cherubim. The Lamb is introduced to represent the relationship 
between the holy eyes, or saints, and the Cherubic Faces ; that is, 
between them and the Lord Jesus ; while " the twenty-four elders " 
are indicative of their constitution as " the Israel of God." There are 
tiuenty-four, because the Kingdom of God, being an Israeli tish 
Commonwealth, is arranged with the twelve sons of Jacoh as its 
gates ;" and with the twelve apostles of the Lamb as its founda- 
tions ;^ the former being the entrance into present life of the fleshly 
tribes, or subjects ; and the latter, the foundations of the adopted 
tribes, or heirs of the kingdom ; so that twenty-four is the 
representative constitutional number of the spiritual Israel of God ; 
for without the natural the spiritual coald not be ; any more than 
there could be adopted Americans, if there were no American nation. 

But the Mosaic Cherubim were deficient of several of the charac- 
teristics which distinguish those of Ezekiel and John. They had 
simply the wings and the faces. His cherubim were not only of 
beaten gold continuous with the substance of the mercy-seat ; but 
they were embroidered into the Veil, made of blue, purple, and 
scarlet, and fine twined linen, which divided the holy and the holiest 
places of the tabernacle. Now, when " Jesus cried with a loud voice, 
he expired (e^sTrpevae) ; and the Veil of the Temple was rent in twain 
from top to bottom.'' " Thus, we see the breaking of the body of Jesas 
identified with the rending of the Cherubic Veil ; thereb}^ indicating 
that the latter was representative of the Lord. 

We have arrived then at this, that the Mosaic Cherabim were 
symbolical of " God manifest in the flesh.'' We wish now to ascer- 
tain upon what principles his incarnate manifestation was represented 
by the Cherubim? First, then, in the solution of this interesting 
problem, I remark, that the scriptures speak of God after the 
following manner. " God is light, and in him is no darkness at 
all ; "'^ again, "God is a Spirit; and they that worship him, mast 
worshijD him in spirit and in truth ; "'' and thirdly, " Our God is a 
consuming fire."f In these three texts, which are only a sample of 
many others, we perceive that God is represented by light, spirit, and 
fire ; when, therefore, He is symbolised as manifest in flesh, it becomes 
necessary to select certain signs representative of light, spirit, and fire, 
derived from the animal kingdom. Now, the ancients selected the 
lion, the ox, and the eagle, for this purpose, probably from tradition 
of the signification of these animals, or the faces of them, in the 
original Cherubim. They are called God's Faces because His omnis- 
cience, purity, and jealousy, are expressed in them. But the omniscient, 
jealous, and incorruptible God, was to be manifested in a particular 

« Rev. xxi. 12. ^ Rev. xxi. 14 ; Epli. ii. 20. ."Mark xv. 37, 38. ^' 1 John i. 5. 
e Jolm iv. 24. / Deut. iv. 24. 



THE FLAMING SWOED. 137 

kind of flesh. Hence, it was necessary to add a fGurtli fate to show in 
what nature He would show Himself. For this reason, the human 
face was associated with the lion, the ox, and the eagle. 

These four faces united in one human shape, formed out of beaten 
gold ; and two such, not separate and distinct symbols, but standing 
one on each end of the mercy-seat, and the same in continuity and 
substance with it ; — taken as a whole, represented Jesus, the true 
blood-sprinkled mercy-seat, or propitiatory, " in whom dwelleth the 
fulness of the Godhead bodily. "'^ All four faces were to look upon the 
mercy-seat, so as to behold the sprinkled blood of the yearly sacrifice. 
To accomplish this, two cherubs were necessary ; so that the lion, and 
the ox, faces of the one ; and the man, and the eagle, faces of the 
other, should all be "mercy-seat- ward." 

It will be seen from this view of things, how important a place 
the Cherubim occupied in the worship of God connected with " the 
representation of the truth."" They were not objects of adoration ; but 
symbols representing to the mind of an intelligent believer the Seed 
of the woman as God manifested in the likeness of sinfal flesh. 
This I take it was the significancy of the Cherubim which the Lord 
God placed at the east of the garden ; and which became the germ, as 
it were, of the shadowy observances of the patriarchal and Mosaic 
institutions ; whose substance was of Christ. 

THE FLAMING- SWORD. 
"A Flaming Sword wliicli turned, every way." 

The things represented by the lion, ox, and eagle faces, were 
visibly manifested in the sword of flame. This was light, spirit, and 
fire, flaming around the cherubim as the glory of God. It turned 
every way to keep the way of the tree of life. This is all Moses says 
about it ; and were it not for other testimonies, we should be at a loss 
to understand its allegorical signification. The cherubim set up in 
the tabernacle and first temple were enveloped in a cloud of thick 
darkness.^ At night, the cload, which was visible without the former, 
appeared like a blaze of fire ;" but in the day, it towered aloft as a 
pillar of cloud. Darkness and fire were frequent accompaniments of 
the divine presence ; indeed, always so upon great occasions. The 
presence of the Lord apon Mount Sinai was a magnificent and terrible 
example ; and when Jesus expired in blood, Judea was veiled in dark- 
ness, and God looked upon it. 

With the exception of the thunder, the earthquake, the tempest, 
and the flashing lightning, God's communing with Moses, and after 
him with the High Priests, were conducted from between the Cherubim, 
as upon Sinai — " The Lord descended upon it in fire ; and the smoke 
thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace ; and God answered him 
by a voice i"'^ so that the thick darkness became luminous and 
indicated His presence. The illumination of the darkness without 
the voice would be sufficient to give assurance of acceptance. The 

. « Rom. iii. 25 ; Col. ii. 3, 9. ^2 Cliron. v. 14 : vi. 1. c Exod. xl. 35-38. 
d Exod. xix. 18. 



138 RUDBIE5TTS OF THE WORLD. 

Priest having witnessed this on the great day of atonement, when 
he came out to the people, looking for him with anxiety to know the 
result, would be enabled to report to them that the Lord had shined 
forth. This was the sign to them of a typical salvation. Hence, 
Asaph prays, " Give ear, Shepherd of Israel ; thou that dwellest 
between the cherubim shine forth — stir up thy strength, and come 
and save us. Turn us again, God, cause thy face to shine; and we 
shall be saved. "'^ 

But the flaming sword in Eden is more strikingly illustrated as 
to its probable appearance by Ezekiel's description of the cherubic 
glory. He says he beheld " a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, 
and a brightness was about it, and out of the brightness thereof as 
the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire ; whence issued forth 
the likeness of four living creatures," or cherubim. " Their 
appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance 
of lamps : it went np and down among the living creatures : and 
the fire was bright, and oat of the fire went forth lightning. And 
the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of 
lightning. "" 

It was customary for the Lord to answer men by fire, when any 
great principle, or new institution was to be established. Thus, the 
covenant with Abraham was confirmed by fire ;^ there also came out 
a fire from before the Lord, and consumed the offering on Aaron's 
induction as high priest ;" when the plague was stayed at the inter- 
cession of David, the Lord answered him by fire from heaven upon the 
altar of burnt offering, and thus indicated the place He had chosen to 
place His name there f and also at the dedication of the temple fire 
consumed the sacrifices in the same way.^ From these examples, I 
think it is a fair inference, that the flaming sword in Eden was 
applied to a similar purpose, namely, to flash forth its fire for the 
consumption of the sacrifices offered by the family of Adam before 
the Lord. 

The fire described by Ezekiel represented the spirit of God in its 
cherubic relations ; for as the fire flashed its lightning so they moved 
to and fro. It also represented the glory, or brightness, of the 
Messiah as he will appear upon his throne. " I saw," saith he, " as 
the appearance of a man above upon the throne : as the colour of 
amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the 
appearance of his loins even upward, and from thence downward, as 
it were, the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. 
As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, 
so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the 
appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.^f The apocalyptic 
representation of the Lord's glory when seated on the throne of David, 
is a repetition of Ezekiel's, though under some modification, so as to 
adapt it to circumstances which had arisen out of the things concern- 
ing Jesus. " I beheld," says John, " a throne was set in the heaven, 
and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a 

« Psalm Ixxx. 1-3. ^ Gen. xv. 17. " Lev. ix. 24. ^ 1 Chron. xxi. 16, 18, 26 : 
xxii. 1. « 2 Chron. vii. 1. / Ezek. i. 4, 13, 14, 26-28. 



"the likeness of the glory of the lord." ' 139 

jasper and a sardine stone : and there was a rainhow round about the 
throne, in sight hke unto an emerald. And out of the throne 
proceeded hghtnings and thunderings, and voices : and there were 
seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven 
spirits of Gody^ 

From these passages, it is evident, that fire which is also light, is 
in symbolic representation significative of the spirit of God. If more 
proof were necessary, the outpouring of the spirit on Pentecost and at 
the house of Cornelius, would be sufficient to settle the matter.^ Now, 
when this appearance envelops men and things, it is called glory, or 
majesty. Hence, referring to the transfiguration of Jesus on the 
Mount, the apostle says, " We were eye-witnesses of his majesty ; for 
he received from God the Father honour and glory.''" Such glory, or 
brightness, so beautifully represented by Ezekiel and John, will clothe 
the saints, as well as the Lord Jesus, when they shall appear in the 
kingdom of God : as it is written, '' They that be wise shall shine as 
the brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn many to right- 
eousness as the stars for ever and ever."'^ The apostle also speaks of 
the brightness of the sun, moon, and stars, as an illustration of the 
glory of the risen saints ;'' and what is symbolically represented in 
Ezekiel and John of the glory of the Lord, is plainly affirmed by the 
prophet in these words : " The moon shall be confounded, and the sun 
ashamed, when the Lord of Hosts shall reign on Mount Sion, and in 
Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously. ''f 

From the whole, then, I conclude that the cherubim and flaming 
sword at the east of Eden's garden were representative, first, of God 
manifest in the woman's nature as ''the word made flesh ;" and by 
being bruised in the heel, set forth as the blood-sprinkled mercy-seat, 
or propitiation for sin ; and secondly, of God manifested in the 
spiritual nature, clothed with dazzling brightness, surjoassing the sun 
and moon in splendour. The cherubim were the throne of the Lord 
in relation to the antediluvian world. There He communed with men. 
His presence was there, and the altar He had set up. When men 
went to sacrifice before Him, there they presented their offerings. If 
these were according to His appointment. He accepted the worshipper ; 
and, probably, answered him by fire flashing forth from the cherubic 
glory, and consuming the sacrifice upon the altar. If the worshipper 
were faithless and disobedient, the faces were hid by thick darkness, 
and the offering remained unconsumed. This was the case with Cain. 
His countenance fell, and he expressed himself with anger. Then the 
Lord God " answered him with a voice," and the conversation ensued 
which is recorded in the Mosaic narrative. Having, then, ascertained 
the signification of the cherubim and flaming sword, I shall proceed 
now to speak of the principles of religion, or of 

« Rev. ir. 3, 5. & Acts ii. 2-4 : xi. 15. c 2 Pet. i. 16. d Dan. xii. 3. 
« 1 Cor. XV. 41, 42. / Isaiah xxiv. 23. 



140 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 



"THE WAY OF THE TREE OF LIFE." 

/' Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there 

be that find it." 

Religion is not coeval with the formation of man ; neither had it 
any existence during his novitiate. Though it was instituted in the 
paradise, it was not for his observance there ; for while he continued 
the sinless tenant of the garden, he stood in no need of the healing 
consolations it affords. Until he ate of the forbidden fruit, there was 
no breach of friendship, no misunderstanding, no alienation, between 
him and the Lord God ; there needed not, therefore, any means, or 
system of means, for the reconciliation of estranged parties. But, as 
soon as the good understanding was interrupted by disobedience to 
the Eden law, sentence of condemnation to the dust was pronounced 
upon the offenders ; and means were instituted to put them at one again 
with the Lord, that He might bring them back from the ground, no 
longer naked and ashamed of their condition ; but clothed with glory 
and honour, incorruptibility and life, as a crown of righteousness that 
should never fade away. These instituted means made up the way of 
life, which Moses terms " God's way''°' David styles it " the 'path of 
H/e;"^ which the apostle, in quoting, renders ''the loays of life'^ 
bhoL (djriQ ;" that is, the way leading to life in which a man must walk 
now ; and the way into the kingdom from the house of death. 

In the beginning, God's way was styled ''the Way of the Tree of 
Life; " which in the passage where it occurs, must be taken literally, 
and then allegorically. In its literal sense, it was the path leading to 
the Tree in the midst of the garden ; but allegorically, it signified the 
things to he helieved and practised hy those who desired to live for 
ever. To believe and do, is to walk in " the Way which leadeth unto 
life ; " because immortality will be a part of the recompense of reward 
for so doing. Until the crucifixion, the Way was marked out, first 
by the patriarchal arrangement of things ; and secondly, by the 
Mosaic law ; all of which pointed to the Shiloh. But, when Jesus 
appeared, he announced, saying, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the 
Life ; no man cometh to the Father, but by me."'^ He became the 
Way, by his sacrificial death, and resurrection. Whosoever would 
attain to life must believe the truth concerning Jesus, and the king- 
dom, which is the most holy place. Hence, it is written, " We have 
boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a New 
and Living Way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the Veil, 
that is to say, his flesh^^ The old Way was but typical of the new ; 
but both are purely matter of revelation. Nothing is left to conjecture. 
Man may corrupt the Way of the Lord ; but he cannot improve it : 
and as surely as he attempts to adapt it to circumstances, he converts 
it into " the Way which leadeth to destruction," which is both broad 
and easy to walk in, being in perfect harmony with the lusts and 
thinking of the flesh. 

°- Gen. vi. 12. '^ Psalm xvi. 11. • c Acts ii. 28. '^ John xiv. 6. 
« Heb. X. 19, 20. 



"religion." 141 

The things of the Way of Life constitute religion. As a word, 
it is derived from the Latin religio, from religare, which signifies, 
to hind again : hence, religion is the act of binding again, or, that 
which heals a hreach previously existing between two parties. This 
traditional idea the Romans expressed by religio. They believed as 
the foundation of their mythology, that mankind and the gods were at 
enmity ; but how it originated they had lost the knowledge of. Their 
impression was that they were angry, but not implacable ; neverthe- 
less, so estranged from men that there could be no direct communica- 
tion with them. Mediatorial converse with the gods was an idea 
universally prevalent in the world. The pagans had derived it by 
tradition from the family of Noah ; with whom was deposited the 
revealed principles of the Way of God instituted in the beginning. 
This idea of mediate communication for the appeasement of divine 
icrath was incorporated in all the domestic and temple worship which 
constituted their religion. They poured out abundantly the blood of 
victims ; and, from the tradition of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac in 
obedience to the divine mandate, the Carthaginians, who migrated from 
Palestine, probably concluded, that the most acceptable offering for sin 
was that of human life. Be this as it may, the principle that " without 
the shedding of blood there is no remission," which is an axiom of 
God's truth, took deep root among all the descendants of the sons of 
Noah. Their system was a corruption of God's Way. They were 
without faith, and erred, not knowing " his thoughts," 

The word used by the Greeks for religion was dprjtn^eia, from 
Qpy](TKEvu) to icorship. This may be derived from (ricevog, taken meto- 
nymically for a minister; and Bpeu) to shout or make a clamour; 
because, in that worship which results from the thinking of sinful 
flesh, the performers rend the air with their shouts ; and if idolaters, 
they " call upon the name of their gods " with frantic cries, " cutting 
themselves with knives and lancets till the blood gushes out upon 
them."'^ The worship of God recognises no such practices as these. 
When persons make their meeting-houses to echo with clamorous 
prayers, such as may be often heard among some who profess the 
religion of Christ — shouting, I say, like the priests of Baal, as though 
God were " talking, or pursuing, or on a journey, or peradventure 
sleeping, and needed to be awaked," — such persons evince that they 
are aicevr] opyi^Q vessels of wrath, who comprehend not the genius of the 
truth ; and not (XKevr) eXeovg vessels of mercy, whose thoughts are in 
harmony with the divine law. 

How different was the prayer of Elijah ! From him ascended 
the " still small voice " of fervent, but tranquil, supplication. He 
knew that God was neither deaf nor asleep ; but a God everywhere 
present by the universality of His spirit. His words were few.^ He 
did not expect to be heard for his much speaking ; knowing that God is 
not to be moved by " vain repetitions," or volubility of speech ; but by 
the love He has for His children, and for the glory of His name. 

While men consider that there is a want of harmony between 
them and divine wisdom and power, and admit that they are deserv- 

« 1 Kings xviii. 28. ^ Eccles. v. 1, 2. 



142 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

ing of divine wrath. ; tlie}^ do not understand, that as offenders they 
have no right to institute the means of reconGiliation. They act upon 
the principle, that God has left it to them to worship Him according 
to the dictates of their own reason. Hence, the world is full of modes 
of worship as diversified as the thoughts of sinful flesh. The notion 
that men may invent religious services ; and that the divine dis- 
pleasure can be appeased by haman contrivances ; are fallacies, which 
are characteristic of false religion wherever they are found. Men 
have no right to invent religions, or modes of worship. Even reason 
dictates this when the question is viewed as a breach between friends. 
When a misunderstanding occurs between such, the initiatory of a 
reconciliation of right appertains to the party offended ; and he only 
has the privilege of dictating the terms of agreement. Hence, in the 
breach between God and man, it is God's prerogative alone to prescribe ; 
and all that men have liberty to do is to accept, or reject, the condi- 
tions of amity and peace. 

This view of the case precludes entirely the idea of appeasing 
the wrath of God by human ingenuity. God needs not to be appeased 
by man ; and every system, therefore, which is predicated upon the 
notion that it is necessary, is not only unscriptural, but essentially 
false. He is already reconciled to the world, which He has always 
loved ; although it acts the part of, and therefore is, the enemy of 
God. " He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son 
that whosoever believetli in him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life."" The fact of a divine religion being instituted is proof 
of the love He bears the human race. He seeks to appease men by His 
goodness, which invites them to repentance.^ His love is manifested 
in all that He has done for the world. He has sought to enlighten it, 
and to exalt it to a participation in the divine nature by the 
ameliorating influences of the truth. He has sent messengers to it 
with their lives in their hands, ready to lay them down in the divine 
work of beseeching mankind to be reconciled to God. Is it not strange 
that men should besiege heaven with vain and clamorous repetitions, 
" praying and beseeching " God to " come down and convert these 
soul-stricken penitents," whom they are " bearing up in their arms 
before a throne of grace ; " representing them as quite ready and 
willing to be reconciled, if He would only grant His spirit, and so 
assure them that all was peace between them : — is it not extraordinary, 
I say, that this should be the order of things in the face oi the revela- 
tion that " God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not 
imputing their trespasses unto them ; "'' " and so winking at the 
times of their past ignorance." 

The case is exactly the reverse of the pulpit theory. This repre- 
sents the world as reconciled, while God is unreconciled and hard to 
be persuaded. Hence, the w^orld is full of religions, all of which 
have been invented, and continue to be observed, for the purpose of 
appeasing His wrath, and disposing Him to peace. He is represented 
by pulpit orators as in a rage ; as ready to launch mankind into the 
flames of hell, and only prevented from hurling His thunderbolts at 

« John iii. 16. ^> Rom. ii. 4. <^ Acts xvii. 30. 



"the woed of recoitciliatiox." 143 

them, by Christ seizing Him by His arm, as it were, and pointing to 
his wounds ! But this is purely mythological. God stands in no 
such attitude to the world, nor Christ to Him. The Lord Jesus is 
not contending with the Father upon any such principle. There is no 
antagonism between them. They agree in one ; and what God con- 
ceives is committed to the Son to execute. The world is not recon- 
ciled to God ; nor has it the least disposition for reconciliation upon 
any other principles than it has itself decreed. These principles are 
subversive of His supremacy in the universe ; they are annihilative of 
His truth ; they demoralize His character — therefore He will accept no 
homage predicated upon them. 

He has long since proclaimed the conditions of peace, which He 
is waiting to ratify in every case where they are accepted. This 
proclamation is styled, "t/ze Word of Reconciliation,'' which, saith 
the apostle, "God hath committed unto us." Not, be it most 
distinctly understood, to me ; nor to the ecclesiastics of any sect, 
party, or denomination, extant. The Word of Reconciliation hath 
been con-unitted to no man, or set of men, now living. It was com- 
mitted to the apostles and their divinely inspired co-labourers, and to 
them only. So that they could say in the words of one of them, 
" We are of God : he that knoweth God heareth us : he that is not of 
God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the 
spirit of error. "'^ And they were perfectly justified in sa3dng so. For 
Jesus said to them. " It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your 
Father which speaketh in you ; "^ therefore he said in another place, 
"He that heareth you, hears me ; and he that hears me, heareth him 
that sent me." 

The word of reconciliation, then, was committed to tiie apostles, 
whom God appointed as His ambassadors to the world. And, be it 
observed, that their ambassadorial character did not rest upon 
assumption, like that of their pretended successors. God attested 
them, as He had done His Son before them. Their credentials were 
in the miracles which accompanied their word. They produced the 
signs of their apostleship ; and multitudes acknowledged them, as 
Nicodemus did their Lord, saying, " We know thou art a teacher 
come from God : for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, 
except God be with him."" They would not have been received as 
ambassadors of heaven if God had not attested them by His power ; 
but being so attested, they were prepared, and did present themselves 
at Satan's court — that is, before Caesar — to invite the world to be at 
peace with Him. 

The pulpit orators of this age are either greatly deceived, or, if 
their eyes be open, most egregiously impose apon the credulity of the 
public, in pretending to be Christ's ambassadors to the world. Why, 
they are the world's allies ; the friends and supporters of the 
institutions of Satan's kingdom ; whose subjects pay them their wages 
on condition of preaching such doctrine as suits them ! Talk of being 
the ministers and ambassadors of Jesus Christ, how perverted must 
their own minds be to imagine it; and how spoiled by "vain 

a 1 Jolm iv. 6. ^ Matt. x. 20. c Jolm iii. 2. 



14 i RUDIMENTS OF THE WOELD. 

philosophy and deceit " the people, who can acquiesce in so unfounded 
a pretension. " Have they seen Jesas ? " or what special message 
have they to the world from God, that men cannot read for themselves 
in the scriptures of truth ? If they have any new light from Him, 
He will attest it as He has always done by a display of power. Men 
will then be justified in receiving them as plenipotentiaries of the 
Divine Majest}^, provided always that what they speak be in strict 
accordance with what Paul preached ; otherwise, not."" " God hath 
given to us,'' say the apostles, " the ministry of reconciliation. Now 
then loe are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech by 
us ; we pray in Christ's stead, be reconciled to God."^ These are the 
men whom He appointed, who sought not to please the public, but to 
enlighten them ; " for," saith one of them, " if I yet pleased men, I 
should not be the servant of Christ." 

The church was associated with the apostles in the ministry of 
reconciliation. By " the church," I mean, not that multiform thing 
called " the church " by the world in these times ; but that one, 
undivided body of disciples, collected together by the personal labours 
of the apostles and evangelists ; and all through subsequent generations, 
who should believe and practise the same truth. To this " one 
hody,'''^ energized by the "one spirit,''^ and " perfectly joined together 
in the same mind and in the same judgment,"^ and styled " Tiffi 
BRIDE " — is committed the work of making known " the manifold 
wisdom of God,"e as contained in the word ; and of inviting the 
world to be reconciled to God.^ No member of this body is exempt 
from the obligation of co-operating in this work. It is the duty and 
privilege of every one in his own sphere to endeavour to turn men to 
righteousness ; for there is no distinction of " clergy " and " laity " 
in the family of God. 

In the days of the apostles, things were very different to what 
they are now. There were many congregations, or churches, but they 
were all one flock, or " denomination ;" and men endowed with spiritual 
gifts were their rulers. But even these were not distinguished from 
their brethren as " clergy," or priests ; but as ministers or servants. 
Well knowing the presumption, pride, and arrogance of the flesh, the 
Spirit commanded them especially to feed the flock, and not to fleece 
it ; to oversee it willingly and of a ready mind, but not for the sake 
of compensation ; and to be examples to the flock, and not to lord it 
over the heritages.^ 

The word ''.clergy,'' as the title of an order, is assumed by men 
who have no right to it. It is a word which comes from the Greek 
KXrjpog a lot or portion ; and is applied by the apostle in the text 
quoted to a single congregation of disciples ; so that when he speaks 
of all the congregations of the flock, he styles them " the heritages," 
Tiov KX-qpior. But, in after years, the ministers of the heritages, or 
clergies, disregarded the commandment, and set themselves up as 
lords of the heritages, which they fleeced, and oppressed for lucre's 
sake. They even made the clergies of God believe that they were 

« Gal. i. 8. fc 2 Cor. v. 18-20. « Eph. iv. 4. '^ 1 Cor. i. ]0 ; Acts ii. 32. 
« Eph. iii. 10. / Eev. xxii. 17. ff 1 Peter v. 2, 3. 



COATS OF SKINS INSTEAD OF FIG LEAVES. 145 

nothing more than mere commoners ; while they themselves, the 
usurjDers of the believers' rights, v^ere God's peculiar lot, or portion, 
as the tribe of Levi was among the Israelites. This usurpation came 
at length to be regarded as legitimate ; and the distinction was then 
set up of " clergy " and " laity," from 6l Xcwl the multitude ! But the 
distinction belongs to the apostasy, and not to God's oppressed and 
scattered sheep. When " clergy " get in among them, it is " as grievous 
wolves, not sparing the flock, but speaking perverse things to draw 
away disciples after them " for their own worldly gain." They have 
nothing to do with the word of reconciliation except to pervert it, and 
to bring it into disrepute. 

The principles of the apostas}^ and indeed of all false religion, 
are such as result from the thinking of the flesh when left to its own 
communings. This is illustrated in the case of Adam and Eve. They 
sought to cover their sin by a device of their own. " They sewed fig- 
leaves together, and made themselves aprons." Their shame was 
covered, indeed ; but their consciences were not healed. But it was 
the best they could do in their ignorance. They were as yet 
unacquainted with the great principle that without the shedding of 
blood there could be no remission of sin.^ They were not aware of 
this necessity ; for it had not been revealed : neither did they under- 
stand that as offenders they would not be j)ermitted to devise a covering 
for themselves. They had everything to learn as the ground of 
]-econciliation with God. They had no idea of religion ; for hitherto 
they had needed none. It yet remained to be revealed as the divinely 
appointed means of healing the breach lohich sin had made hetioeen 
God and men. 

Having, then, been made subject to evil, and consigned to the 
bondage of a perishing state, the Lord God repudiated their fig-leaf 
invention, and "appointed coats of skins" for their covering. In this 
testimon}^ there is much expressed in few words. To appoint coats 
of skins implies a command for the sacrifice of the animals whose 
skins were converted to this purpose. It also implies that Adam was 
the priest on the occasion, who presented himself before the Lord 
with the mediatorial blood. When the sacrifice was accepted, the 
offence was provisionally remitted ; for the scripture saith, that it is 
not possible for the blood of animals to take away sins.*' It was 
impossible, because sin was to be condemned in sinful flesh. This 
required the death of a man ; for the animals had not sinned : so 
that, if the whole animal world, save man, had been made an offering 
for sin, sin would still have been uncondemned in his nature. Besides 
the necessity of a human S2lcrifice, God deemed it equally necessary, 
that the victim should be free from personal transgression ; and that 
when he had suffered, he should rise from the dead so as to be "a 
living sacrifice." 

If the death of a transgressor would have sufficed, then, Adam 
and Eve might have been iDut to death at once, and raised to life 
again. But this was not according to the divine wisdom. The great 
principle to be compassed was the condemnation of sin in sinful 

<' Acts XX. 29, 30. ?' Heb. ix. 22. c Heb. x. 4. 



146 RUDBIENTS OF THE WORLD. 

flesh, innocent of actual transgression. This principle necessitated 
the manifestation of one, who should be born of a woman, but not 
of the ivill of man. Sach an one wonld be the Seed of the Woman, 
made of her substance, with Him for his Father who by His over- 
shadowing spirit, should cause her to conceive. He would be Son of 
God by origination ; and Son of Man by descent, or birth of sinful 
flesh. Now, it is not to be supposed that Adam and Eve did not 
understand this : God doubtless explained it to them ; for they had 
none to teach them but Him ; and without His instruction, they would 
not have known what they should believe. It was from them, tiiat 
Abel derived the knowledge which was the foundation of his faith, to 
which God testified in the acceptance of the firstling of his flock and 
the fat thereof. 

Adam and his wife had faith, or God would not have accepted 
the sacrifices with whose skins they were clothed ; for it was as 
true then as it is now, that " without faith it is impossible to please 
God." Faith, then, in the Seed of the Woman, first as a sacrifice 
for sin, wounded to death by his enemies ; and afterwards the 
destroyer of the sin-power ; in connexion with the sacrifice of 
animals as representative of the bruising of his heel — was the ground 
of their acceptance with the Lord God. It was the Wa}^ of Life. 
If they walked with God in this way, they would be as pleasing to 
him as Enoch afterwards was, who was translated about 57 years 
after Adam's death. It was the way which was corru|)ted by the 
antediluvians ; and although the sacrifices have been interrupted, the 
faith and hope which gained celebrity and commendation to Abel, 
Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and a cloud of other witnesses, com- 
prehended substantially the same things, but less in detail than in that 
faith which was preached by the apostles as the gospel of the kingdom 
and name of Christ, for the justification of all who should believe. 
The things believed by Abel as compared with the faith preached on 
Pentecost, were as the acorn to the oak. The gospel of the kingdom 
in the name of Jesus was the revelation in full of the things com- 
municated in the beginning ; and afterwards more considerably 
amplified in the promises made to the fathers of the jjeople Israel. 
When the saints are all gathered into the kingdom, they will not find 
themselves in an unexpected situation. They will all be there by 
virtue of believing the same things ; though some, contemporary^ with 
the later history of the world, will have had the advantage of more 
abounding testimony. Their sins will have been covered upon the 
same principle— b^/ the raiment of righteousness derived from the 
sacrifice, by faith in whose hlood they had heen cleansed. 

There is no true religion without faith ; nor any true faith with- 
out the belief of the truth. Now, although a scriptural faith is the 
scarcest thing among men, it is exceedingly simple, and by no means 
difficult to acquire, when it is sought for aright. Paul gives the best 
definition of faith extant. He says, ''Faith is a confident anticipation 
(virofyraaLQ) of things hoped for, a fidl persuasion (eXeyxog) of things 
not seen.''"- This is the faith without which, he tells us afterwards, 

a Heb. xi. 1. 



HOW FAITH COMES. 147 

God is not, and cannot by any possibility be, pleased. It is a faith 
which lays hold of the past and the future. The person who 
possesses it, knows what is testified concerning Jesus by the apostles, 
and is fully persuaded of its truth ; he also knows the exceeding- 
great and precious promises which God has made concerning things 
to come, and he confidently anticipates the literal fulfilment of them. 
Laying hold of these things with a firm faith, he acquires a mode of 
thinking and a disposition which are estimable in the sight of God ; 
and being like Abraham in these particulars, he is prepared by 
induction into Christ, to become a son of the father of the faithful, 
and of the friend of God. 

This faith comes by studying the scriptures ; as it is written, 
" Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."" This 
word contains the " testimony of God." When this testimony is 
understood, and allowed to make its own impression in " a good and 
honest heart," faith establishes itself there. There is no more 
mystery in this, than how one man comes to believe another guilty 
of a crime when he is made acquainted with all the testimony in the 
case. The ability to believe lies in a sound nnderstanding, a candid 
disposition, and knowledge of the testimony of God. Where there is 
ignorance of this there can be no faith. It is as impossible for a man 
ignorant of God's word to have faith, as it is for a man to believe 
another is guilty of an alleged crime who knows nothing at all about 
the matter. 

But, one may say, there are multitudes who believe in Christ 
who are very ignorant of the scrix^tures. Yes, they believe in Christ 
as Turks believe in Mohammed. But this is not the faith defined by 
Paul. The mere belief that Jesus is the Son of God is not believing 
in him. To believe in him is to believe what God testifies concerning 
him. The faith of the " religious world " is like a stool with only 
one leg. It 'professes to believe in Jesus ; but it is ignorant, and 
therefore faithless, of tlie message he was sent to deliver to Israel. 
His message had relation to " the things hoped for " — to the things oi 
the kingdom which the God of heaven will set up upon the ruin of 
the kingdoms which now exist. Men are invited to believe in the 
Messenger of the Covenant, and in the message which unfolds the 
things of the covenant. To believe the one and reject the other is 
stultification. The " religious world " has placed itseK in this pre- 
dicament ; and unless it believes the whole truth, which is not likely, 
it will be cut off as was Israel in the days of old. 

"Love is the fulfilling of the law."^ "He that hath my com- 
mandments, and keepeth them, he it is thatloveth me ;" "If any man 
love me, he will keep my words ;" and " He that loveth me not, keepeth 
not my words."" In the face of these sayings of Jesus, what is the 
love of "professors" for God and His Son worth? It is like their 
faith, of no account whatever. God asks men for their hearts ; but 
they give Him only their lips. They profess to love Him, but give 
their affections to the world. From the ecclesiastical throne, or pulpit, 
to the humblest "layman," can they give a scriptural demonstration 

« Rom. X. 17. & Rom. xiii. 10. " Jokii xiv. 21, 23, 24, 



148 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

of obedience to the faith. ? They offer verbal sacrifices without end ; 
at least they do, who are compensated for their words ; the " laity " 
are possessed of a legion of dumb spirits, and sit only as the listless 
hearers of the " eloquence " presented according to their taste : — but 
where is obedience to the gospel of the kingdom in the name of Jesus ? 
Who ever thinks of obeying this ? And yet he comes to take vengeance 
on all who obey it not." 

I cannot too earnestly commend the words of Samuel to the 
attention of the reader in this place. " Hath the Lord," saith he, " as 
great delight in burnt- offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice 
of the Lord ? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken 
than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and 
stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry."^ A great principle is set 
forth in these words. It is that which can alone place men in harmony 
with the religion of God. Without it a man may indeed know the 
truth ; but he must believe and do if he would inherit tlie kingdom 
which has been preparing from the foundation of the world. 

Religion is of two kinds — that, namely, which is invented by the 
thinking of sinful flesh ; and that which is revealed of God. The 
former is superstition, and leads men to do a vast deal more than God 
requires of them, or less than He has appointed. In what is called 
*' Christendom" most improperly (for instead of being Christ's dominion, 
as the word implies, it is the arena of his sufferings in the persons of 
his disciples, and in the suppression of his truth), these extremes of 
superstition in its plus and minus exhibitions, are illustrated in all 
their diversity from popery, which is superstition in excess, down to 
Quakerism, which is superstition in its homoeopathic proportion. ■ 

The religion of God, on the contrary, is the juste milieu, occupying 
a commanding and dignified position between the two extremes. It 
does not require men to abase themselves in the dust, and to afflict 
their bodies for their sins ; nor to plant themselves as so many statues 
of clay, with downcast or upturned visages in the silence of the 
sepulchre, under pretence of waiting for Him to move them to 
preach or pray. There is no fanaticism nor pietism in His religion. 
When in the exercise of it men are moved to action, they are acted 
upon by an intelligent and earnest conviction of the truth. This is 
the instrumentality by which He rouses men to religious exercise — 
hy the spirit which is the truth." 

When, therefore, they are really " moved by the spirit " they are 
moved by the truth, and do not talk nonsense. They speak according 
to " the law and the testimony ; " and thus evince to all who under- 
stand the scriptures, that they have " light icithiny Everything 
spoken not according to the word is nonsense ; and the spirit never 
moves men to speak nonsense : nor doth the light of truth within ever 
teach men to undervalue the institutions of religion ; or to live in 
neglect of them, under pretence of a refined spirituality, or superior 
sanctity. *' By their fruits ye may know them." This is an excellent 
rule by which to discern the spirits. Men pray for the Holy Spirit ; 
profess to preach under its guidance ; and often in a very bad spirit, 

« 2 Thess. i. 8. '' 1 Sam. xv. 22, 23. <= i John v. 6. 



ON " THE LIGHT WITHIN." 149 

protest that they received it when converted. Bnt the spirit dwells 
only with those who understand, believe, and obey the gospel of th.e 
kingdom ; and who walk according to its precepts. No man, be he 
preacher or " layman," has the spirit, or anything else to do with it 
than as resisting it, who does not preach, and believe, the gospel Paul 
preached. The " religious world " is utterly destitute of the spirit 
which belongs to God's religion ; because it is ignorant of the gospel, 
and understands not " the voices of the prophets." 

If, therefore, it be sincerely desirous of the spirit of God, let it 
renounce the traditions of ''the fathers,'' and "mothers'' of th.e 
apostasy, from Origen to Joanna Southcote, Jemima Wilkinson, and 
Anne Lee ; let it shake off the thrall of Rome, Oxford, Wittemburg, 
Geneva, and Nauvoo ; all of which make of none effect the word of 
the living God: and let it ''search the scriptures" according to the 
divine command, " proving all things and holding fast that which is 
good," that it may believe the truth and obey it in the love of it. 
Christ will then dwell in its heart by faith ;" it will be rooted and 
grounded in love, having attained to the obedience of faith, which is 
the sole criterion of love to God ; and the well-intentioned, and con- 
scientious, though unenlightened, members of its community, will have 
no longer ground of lamentation on account of " the decay of spiritu- 
ality, and the prevalence of formality and worldliness in the churches." 
All the Most High requires of men is just to believe what He has 
done, what He teaches, and what He promises ; to obey the law of 
faith ; to take care of the poor of His flock ; and to keep themselves 
unspotted from the world. This is pure and undefiled religion.^ But, 
alas ! where is it to be found ? 

Rehgion being the divine remedy for sin, it is evident that when 
the sin of the world is taken away, religion will be abolished. So 
long as sin exists in the earth, so long will there be separation between 
God and men ; for it is sin, and that only, which interrupts man's 
fellowship with God and His angels, as it obtained before the fall. 
When sin is eradicated from the world there will be no more death ; 
for death and sin are boon companions ; as it is written, " The wages 
of sin is death." The abolition of death presupposes the extinction 
of sin in the flesh ; and consequently that the animal nature of man 
lias been transformed (not evaporated, but changed) into the spiritual 
nature of the Elohim. Man will then be no longer subject to evil. 
His race will have passed through its 7,000 years of probation ; and 
all of its individuals, who have been the faithful subjects of God's 
rehgion, will become the incorruptible and perpetual inhabitants of 
the earth, emancipated from every curse ; God will then dwell in men 
by His Spirit as he now fills the Lord Jesus Christ. All distinction of 
church and world, saints and sinners, righteous and wicked, shall cease 
for ever ; for there will be none of the Serpent's seed alive. They will 
have been utterly destroyed ; for only " the meek shall inherit the 
earth, and delight themselves with abundance of peace."'' 

Religion begins in the third chapter of Genesis, and finds the 
record of its end in the last two chapters of the Revelation. Its 

« Eph. iii. 17. ^ Titus ii. 11-14 ; James i. 27. "Psalm xxxvii. 11. 



150 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

abolition is expressed in these words : " Belioid, the tabernacle of God 
is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his 
people, and God himself shall be with them as their God. And he 
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes : and there shall he no more 
DEATH, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more 
pain : for the former things are passed away. And he that sat npon 
the throne said, Behold, I make all things neiv. And there shall he 
NO MORE CURSE."" Then will the victory be complete. The Sin-power 
and all its works will he finally aholished ; and an eternal juhilee 
gladden the hearts of men, in whom God will he all and in all} 

As it is highly important that the reader should have a distinct 
understanding of the religion of God, if he would profit by it, it may 
not be amiss, in order to facilitate its comprehension, to present the 
following 

SUMMARY OF PRINCIPLES. 

1. Religion is that system of means by which the hreach made by 
sin between God and man is repaired ; and the wound inflicted upon 
the latter is healed. 

2. Man's defilement was first a matter of conscience ; and then 
corporeal. For this cause, his purification is first a cleansing of his 
understanding, sentiments, and affections ; and afterwards, the 
perfecting of his body by spiritualising it at the resurrection. 

3. An evil conscience is made manifest by the truth, and is evinced 
by shame, and by " doubts and fears." 

4. A good conscience is characterised by a full assurance of faith 
and hope, founded upon an understanding of the gospel of the king- 
dom in the name of Jesus, and an obedience to it. The obedience of 
faith gives the subject " the answer of a good conscience." 

5. A seared conscience has no compunctions. It is that condition 
of thinking flesh which results from the absence of all divine know- 
ledge, and habitual sin. It is incurable. 

6. Religion is a system of faith and practice. 

7. The faith of religion embraces what God has done, what He 
promises to do, and what He teaches in His word ; all of which is 
presented for the elaboration of a godlike disposition, termed " the 
Divine Nature," in the believer. 

8. To be of any value, religion must be entirely of divine appoint- 
ment. 

9. The ohedience of religion is a conformity to ''the laio of faith,'' 
resulting from the belief of " the things concerning the Kingdom of 
God and the name of Jesus Christ." It is termed " the ohedience of 
faith f' for believers only can yield it. 

10. The repentance of religion is the thinking contrary to the 
flesh, and in harmony loith the testimony of God ; accompanied with 
an Abrahamic disposition as the consequence of believing it. 

11. The morality of religion is the taking care of the widows and 
orphans of Christ's flock, and " keeping one's self unspotted from the 
world." Collectively, it is the "fruits meet for repentance." 

« Rev. xxi. 3-5 : xxii. 3. ^ 1 Cor. xv. 28. 



SUMMARY OF PRINCIPLES. 151 

12. Religion hath its " elements,'^ which are styled " weak and 
beggarly.'' These are " days, and years, and months, and times ;" 
''meat and drink;" sacrifices, ablutions, ordinances of divine service, 
holy places, veils, altars, censers, cherubim, mercy-seats, holy days, 
sabbaths, &c., " which were a shadow of things to come ; hut the 
substance is of Christ."* 

13. The elementary doctrinal principles of religion are few and 
simple ; and no other reason can be given for them than that God loills 
them. They may be thus stated : 

a. No sinner can by any means redeem his brotlier, nor give to 
God a ransom for him, that he should still live for ever, and not see 
corruption.'' 

h. Sin cannot be covered, or remitted, without the shedding of 
blood. 

c. The blood of animals cannot take away sin. 

d. Sin must be condemned in sinful flesh innocent of trans- 
gression. 

e. Sins must be covered by a garment derived from the purifica- 
tion-sacrifice made living by a resurrection. 

14. To be naked is to be in an unpardoned state. 

15. The proximate principles of religion are " repentance from 
dead works, faith towards God, doctrine of baptisms, and of the 
laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal 
judgment."'' 

« Col. ii. 17. ^ Psalm xli±. 7, 9. <= Heb. vi. 1, 2. 



[With reference to paragraph 13 above, the fact that God wills the elementary 
doctrinal principles of religion is all sufficient, but here and there allusions in the 
Scriptures suggest reasons ichy He so wills them. For example, when Nadab and 
Abihu set aside His will and offered strange fire He struck them dead, and Moses 
recognised the reason : " This is that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in 
them that come nigh me, and before all the people 1 will be glorified " (Lev. xi. 3). 
Moses himself afterwards died on Mount Nebo (as Aaron had previously died on 
Mount Hor) without entering the promised land, and God said it was " because ye 
sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel" (Deut. xxxii. 51). The 
Lord's prayer, in its opening words, places the same principle in the forefront : 
*' Our Father which art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name." "If I be a father, 
where is mine honour ? " said God to apostate Israel (Mai. i. 6). " I am a great 
King, saith the Lord of Hosts, and my Name is dreadful among the heathen " 
(verse 14). God set forth Jesus as a Mercy seat, not only for man's sake, but that 
" He might be just," and " boasting " on man's part might be " excluded " (Rom. 
iii. 4: 25-27). He committed the treasure of the truth to "earthen vessels," that 
" the exceUency of the power might be of God " and not of man (2 Cor. iv. 7). 
Thus He "chose the base things of the world" . . . "that no flesh should 
glory in His presence" (1 Cor. i. 29). These and similar scriptures convey the 
idea that the reasons of God's appointments in His principles of religion are that, 
in the first place, He may be "justified," " honoured," " sanctified,' and "hallowed '; 
and next, that man, taking this truly reasonable, humble, and obedient attitude, may 
be saved from death and live for ever. No one more strenuously upholds this 
doctrine than Dr. Thomas.] 



152 RUDIilENTS OF THE WORLD. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE PRESENT WORLD IN RELATION TO TRE WORLD TO COME. 

God the builder of all things. — Nothing elaborated by chance, but all things the 
result of divine premeditation. — Whatever exists He created for His own 
pleasure and glor^-. — The purpose of God in the work of creation and provi- 
dence, revealed in the scriptures. — The present order of things merely 
jjrovisional. — The economy of the fulness of appointed times the tvwe 
" Intermediate State " of a thousand years duration. — The tower of Babel 
builders, peace-men, and socialists. — The princijole upon which men attain to 
the angelic nature, and dignity, defined.- — God's tAvo-fold purpose in the foun- 
dation of the world stated. — The means by which it is accomplishing. — 
Dissertation on the Elohim. 

Among the many and varions titles of the Supreme Being in the 
scriptures of truth, is that of a Builder, or Architect ; as it is written, 
" the Builder of all things is God." Pursuing this suggestion, I 
remark, that " a wise master builder " never begins to build without 
a design. He draughts this after a scale of so much to the foot. 
This is the extension, or time, so to speak, of the building, or edifice, 
to be erected. Having well considered the whole, he concludes that it 
is the best possible plan that can be devised in harmony with the rules 
and principles of architecture. The plan then becomes his " purpose," 
his "foreordination," "predestination," or design. All subsequent 
arrangements are made to conform to this recorded purpose, because it 
is the very best his most deliberate wisdom and ingenuity could 
devise ; and no extraneous suggestions, or considerations, will cause 
him to diverge in the smallest iota from his predetermination. 

The next thing the Builder does is to collect together all the 
necessary materials, whether of brick, stone, lime, sand, wood, or aught 
else that may be needed. If a spectator desired to know what all 
these crude matters were heaped up together in one place for, the 
architect would reveal to him " the mystery of his will lohieh he had 
purposed in himself,"'' by submitting the draught of his plan, in 
all its. lines, circles, angles, &c. ; and he would describe to him such 
an arrangement of the materials as would impress the spectator's mind 
with an image of the edifice, though it would fall infinitely short of 
the reality when perfected. 

If we suppose the edifice, call it temj^le, or palace, to be now 
finished, the architect would next order the rubbish, or materials 
which w^ere left as unfit to work into the building, and therefore 
worthless, such as broken bricks, splinters, shavings, sand, and so 
forth, to be cast oat to be trodden under foot, to burn,^ &c. Thus 
the edifice is built out of the accumulated materials, according to the 
outline of the draught, or purpose of the Builder ; and the work is done. 

Now, as the scripture saith, tlie Great Builder of the heavens and 
the earth is God. " His hand hath laid the foundations of the earth, 

« Eph. i. 9. ?' Mai. iv. 3; Matt v. 12. 



THE DIVINE PLAN". 153 

and liis right hand hath spanned the heavens." The Builder of all 
things either left the elements of the v^orld to a random and accidental 
aggroupement, or, He "ordered them in all things." Where is the 
man among " philosojohers " who will stultify, or idiotize himself by 
saying, that the Creator permitted chance to elaborate the terrestrial 
system ? The thing is absurd. Chance is defined to be the cause of 
fortuitous, or accidental, events. What is that cause ? The fool 
says in his heart it is not God. Why does he say so ? Because he 
would make the cause of all things, a mere physical disposition in 
matter, destitute of all intellectual and moral attributes, in order that 
he may get rid of all responsibility to such a Being. He hates truth, 
righteousness, and holiness, and therefore he vainly strives to persuade 
himself that there is no God of a truthful, righteous, and holy 
character. 

But no man of any pretensions to sound mind would affirm this. 
Nothing has been elaborated by chance. The scriptures declare that 
everything was measured, meted out, and weighed ; and that the 
Spirit of the Lord executed His work without any to counsel or instruct 
Him. As it is written, "He has measured the waters in the hollow 
of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and. comprehended 
the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in 
scales, and the hills in a balance. Who hath directed the Spirit of 
the Lord, or being his counsellor, hath taught him ? With whom took 
he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of 
judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of 
understanding? "" 

God, then, had in His own mind a pattern, or design, of all the 
work that was before Him, before He uttered a word, or His spirit 
began to move. This design, or archetype, which placed the begin- 
ning and the end of all things before Him in one panoramic view, was 
constructed in harmony with the principles — the eternal principles of 
His vast, unbounded realm ; which coincide with the immutable 
attributes of His character. The work He was about to execute was 
for His own pleasure ; as, saith the scripture, " Thou hast created all 
things, and for thy pleasiire they are, and were created." But, when 
the work is finished, which, for His own pleasure, God labours to 
elaborate, lohat icill it consist in ? 

This inquiry we make as the spectators of the wonders of creation, 
providence, and redemption. We behold the materials of these 
departments of Eternal Wisdom, and we ask to what are all things 
tending ? W^hat temple, or edifice, is the Divine Architect raising 
for His own pleasure and glory ? If we turn our thoughts within us, 
there is no voice there which unfolds the philosophy of His doings ; 
if we soar into the heavens, or descend into the sea; if we search 
through the high places of the earth — we find no answer ; for " Who 
hath known the mind of the Lord, who hath been his counsellor, 
or who hath instructed him ? " If we would ascertain what God 
designs to elaborate out of the past, the present, and the future, we 
must be content to assume the attitude of listeners, that He may reveal 

« Isaiah, xl. 12, 



154 RUDIMENTS OF TflE WORLD. 

to US from His own lips what He intends to evolve in the consumma- 
tion of His plans. 

God, then, has caused a Book to be w^ritten for our information as 
to His design — His ultimate purpose in the works of creation, 
providence, and redemption, which are the three grand divisions o£ 
His labour ; and which are all tending to the development of one 
great and glorious consummation. This Book, so graciously bestowed, 
and so inimitably written, is vernacularly^ styled the bible (b (iiftXoQ) ; 
or, scriptural^, the writings fai ypa(pai), and sometimes the holy 
WRITINGS. These are divided into two parts, popularly styled the Old 
and New Testaments. The appeals made by Jesus and his apostles to 
the writings were to what is now termed the Old Testament ; for there 
were no other writings acknowledged then. The New Testament was 
not written in the beginning of the apostolic era. Indeed it was not 
so much needed then ; for the apostles taught orally the things, 
which afterwards they in part committed to writing. The breathings 
of the spirit, enunciated through the spiritual men of the churches, 
supplied the place, which the New Testament now occupies. The 
writings of the prophets, which are the root and foundation of the 
New Testament, and without the understanding of which the latter 
is unintelligible aright, are divided into " the law and the testimony " ; 
or " the law, the prophets, and the psalms " ; altogether they are styled 
THE WORD. This, with " the testimony for Jesus " left on record by 
the apostles, makes the " word of the Lord " to ns, which lives and 
abides for ever. 

All writers and speakers must be unceremoniously tried by this ; 
for, God hath said, that " if they speak not according to this word, 
it is because there is no light in them." It matters not who the sinner 
may be ; pope, cardinal, archbishop, bishop, minister, or their 
admirers ; or, even one of the saints of God, or an angel himself ; 
nothing he may say, or write, must be received unless in strict 
conformity to this word ; and of this the people must judge for 
themselves upon their own responsibility ; and in the face of their 
eternal weal, or rejection from the Kingdom of God. To this Book, 
then, we appeal for light — for information concerning the things which 
shall be hereafter. 

If we take up an ordinary book, how could we proceed to ascertain 
the end the author had in writing his book ? We should read it 
through carefully, and thus having made ourselves acquainted with 
its contents, we should be prepared to answer the question intelligently 
and accurately. Why do men not do so with the Bible ? God is 
admitted by all sensible persons to be the author ; Moses, the apostles, 
and the prophets, are but His amanuenses to whom He dictated what 
to write. If then the question be put, what end had God in view in the 
six days' work of the creation ; in His subsequent providential 
arrangements in relation to men and nations ; and in the propitiatory 
sacrifice of the Lamb of God : — we proceed in the same way with 
the Bible in which He tells His own story ; and answer according to 
the light we may have acquired. 



" ALL THIXGS NEW." 155 

Now tlie Book of God is peculiar in this — it narrates the past, the 
present, and the future all in one volume. We learn from the accuracy 
of its details in relation to the past and the present, to put unbounded 
confidence in its declaration concerning the future. In ascertaining, 
therefore, the ultimate design of eternal wisdom in the creation o£ 
all things, we turn to the end of the Bible to see what God hath said 
shall he as the consummation of what has gone before ; for what He 
has said shall he the permanent constitution of things, must he the end 
ivhich He originally designed hefore eve?' the foundation of the earth 
was laid. 

Turn we then, to the last two chapters of the Book of God. What 
do we learn from these ? We learn from them, that there is to be a 
great physical and moral renovation of the earth. That every curse 
is to cease from off the globe ; and that it is to be peopled with men 
who will be deathless, and free from all evil. That they will all then 
be the sons of God, a community of glorious, honourable, incorruptible, 
and living beings ; who will constitute the abode of the Lord God 
Almighty and the Lamb, the glory of whose presence will evolve a 
brilliancy surpassing the splendour of the sun. — The glohe a glorious 
dioelling place, and its inhabitants an immortal and glorious people, 
'With the indioelling presence of the Eternal Himself — is the consum- 
mation which God reveals as the answer to the question concerning 
His ultimate design. The following testimonies will prove it : 

" The inheritance of the saints in light : ""^ " An inheritance 
incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in 
heaven"^ — "I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth, and there 
teas no more sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming 
down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her 
husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, ' The 
tabernacle of God is witli men, and He will dwell with them, and they 
shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them, their God. 
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes : and there shall be 
no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any 
more pain ; for the former things (or the " heaven and earth " in which 
they existed) are passed away.' And he that sat upon the throne said, 
' Behold I make all things new.' And he said unto me, ' Write ; for 
these words are true and faithful.' And he said unto me, ' It is done ; 
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto 
him that is athirst of the fountain of water of life freel^^ He that 
overcometh shall inherit all things ; and I will be his God, and he 
shall be my son ;' "<' "and there shall be no more curse. "'^ 

Now, the creating of all things neio implies that the constitution 
of things which precedes the new creation was an old system, that 
had answered the end for which it was arranged in the first instance. 
This old system, styled by John " the former heaven and earth," is 
manifestly the system of the world based upon the six days' creation ; 
for " the former things " which had passed away in the vision were 
the sea, death, sorrow, sin, the curse, and all their corelates. This 
old creation, with its temporary mediatorial constitution, then, is but 

« Col. i. 3. ^l Pet. i. 4. « Rev. xxi. 1-7. ^ Rev. xxii. 3. 



156 ilUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

a grand system of means, elementary of a still grander and inconceivably 
more magnificent creation, which will be of an unchangeable and eternal 
constitution. The old Mosaic physical heavens and earth are to the 
new creation as the accumulated materials of a building are to the 
edifice about to be built : and hold the same relation to the new 
heavens, as the natural system does to the spiritual. We repeat, then, 
that the creation of the six days, which we have termed Mosaic, 
because Moses records their generations, was not a finality ; but simply 
the beginning, or ground-work of things, when God commenced the 
execution of flis purpose which He had arranged ; the ultimatum of 
which was, to elaborate by truth and judgment, as His instrumentality, 
a world of intelligent beings, who should become the glorious and 
immortal population of the globe, under an immutable and eternal 
constitution of things. 

Such is the superlative of the matter. The physical creation of 
the six days is positive ; there was an ulterior, however, as well as 
an ultimate purpose in the work. The ulterior is the comparative ; 
the ultimate, the transcendant excellency of the design. The Almighty 
Builder of all things intended not to translate the whole human race 
from a state of sin and death at once into a state of unmingled good 
and glory. He foresaw that the living race would never be fit for 
this ; but that they must be previously disciplined and prepared for 
the transition. Hence, He proposed to develop an Intermediate State 
upon the earth, and among the nations of mortal men contemporary 
with it; in which, good and evil would still be commingled, but 
differing from the preceding state (the present) in this, that, though 
evil would continue to be, sin should not have dominion over the 
world, but be dethroned by righteousness. We have styled this 
state intermediate, because it is designed to occupy a middle place 
hetioeen the present times of the Gentiles, and the unchangeable con- 
stitution of the globe, when there will be " no more sea," and all men 
will be immortal. 

This ulterior, but not ultimate, constitution of things is alluded 
to in these words : " God hath made known unto us the Mystery of 
his will, which he hath purposed in himself according to his good 
pleasure : that in the dispensation of the fulness of the times appointed 
{oiKovofxiav Tov 7rXr)pioiJ,aroc riLv Kacpivv) he might gather together in one 
all things in Christ, both which are in the heavens, and the things 
upon the earth, in him."" This elliptical allusion to the revelation of 
God's will, or purpose, is strikingly interpreted by the following 
passages from the word. " The Iron Kingdom (the Roman) shall be 
divided into ten kingdoms.^ And in their days shall the God of 
heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed : and the 
kingdom shall not be left to other people ; but it shall break in pieces 
and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." They 
shall become " like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors ; and the 
tempest shall carry them away, that no place shall be found for them : 
and the stone (or power) that shall smite them shall become a great 
mountain, and fill the whole earth." 

«Eph. i. 9, 10. ^' Dan. ii. 41, 44, 35. 



THE EVERLASTING DOMINION. 157 

" There shall be given to the Son of Man dominion, and glory, 
and a kingdom, that all peoj)le, nations, and languages, may serve 
him ; his dominion is an everlasting dominion v^hich shall not pass 
away, and his kingdom shall not be destroyed, and all dominions, or 
rulers, shall serve and obe}^ him."'' 

" The Lord," Jesus, " shall be king over all the earth ; in that 
day shall there be one Lord, and his Name one."^ 

" The Lord of Hosts," Jesus, " shall reign on Mount Zion, and in 
Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously."^ " I, Jesus, was born 
that I might be a King." 

" The righteous dead shall live again, 
A thousand years with Christ to reign."'^ 

" The nations shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their 
spears into scythes : nation shall not lift up sword against nation, 
neither shall they learn war any more."^ 

From these testimonies, it is manifest to all minds, unspoiled by 
a "vain and deceitful philosophy," that, in the Economy of the Future 
Age, all kingdoms, states, and empires ; and all people, nations, and 
languages, are to be gathered together into one dominion under Jesus 
Christ. These are the " things in the heavens," and the " things on 
the earth," which, grouped together into one imperial dominion, will 
constitute an economy of things that will be wonderful and glorious. 
We see, then, what God hath declared shall he- — an imperio-regal 
hierarchy of immortals, which, under one chief, shall possess all power 
and authority over subject nations in the flesh. By such a constitution 
of things as this upon the globe for 1,000 years, the human race will 
have furnished from the foundation of the world, a sufficient multitude 
of righteous men to people the earth when there shall be "no more 
sea." Till this economy begins, the previous 6,000 years will have 
furnished scope sufficient to obtain an adequate number of kings and 
priests from Israel and the nations, for the kingdom of the 
Future Age. 

After this exhibition, who will lack the ability to answer the 
question — Why hath God made of one blood all nations of men to 
dwell on all the face of the earth ; and determined the previously- 
appointed times ; and the bounds of their habitation ? The answer 
is. He created a human pair and subjected them to the law of 
procreation, that they might so multiply as to refill the earth ; He 
divided their posterity into nations by the confusion of tongues ; 
determined the times of their self-dominion ; and set limits to their 
territorial extension — that, in the fulness of time, the materials of 
A KINGDOM AND EMPIRE OF NATIONS might exist, whicli He would confer 
upon a king, and such other regal associates, as in His own good and 
sovereign pleasure He should think proper to appoint. 

The segregation of mankind into nations, then, is not accidental, 
or the result of mere human policy. It is a divine appointment. 
Human wisdom was opposed to it in the beginning ; and if Socialists, 
Peace Societies, and such like, could carry out their schemes, they 

« Dan. vii. 14, 27. ^' Zech. xiv. 9. <" Isaiah :sxiv. 23. ^^ Eev. xx. 8. « Isaiah ii. 4. 



158 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

would commingle the nations into one indiscriminate " universal 
brotherhood," and abolish all times and bounds of habitation. 

The projectors of the city and tower of Babel announced in their 
programme, that the enterprise was intended to secure to the patrons 
of the scheme " a 'Name " ; and to prevent them from being " scattered 
abroad upon the face of the whole earth." They were opposed to 
nationalization ; they preferred a fraternal communism, and proceeded 
to build a temple of social fraternity for all mankind. But God and 
His purposes were in none of their thoughts. They were concocting 
schemes utterly subversive of them ; therefore He interfered, saying, 
" Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language ; and this 
they hegin to do : and now nothing will be restrained from them which 
they have imagined to do. Let us go down, and there confound their 
language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the 
Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth : 
and they left off to build the city."'* 

The development of this imperio-regal constitution of nations is 
the one grand idea of the divine writings. It is the subject matter' 
of the gospel of the kingdom and peace of God. All other divine 
arrangements concentre in this as the great focal truth of human 
redemption and terrestrial regeneration. The needle is not more true 
to the pole, nor planetary attraction to the sun's centre, than are the 
things of the prophets and apostles to this idea of an Israeli tish 
kingdom and empire of nations. To lose sight of this is to remain in 
hopeless ignorance of the faith and hope, which God has graciously 
set before us in His word ; and to lay ourselves open to every species 
of dekision that the carnal mind, so fertile of evil fruits, may enunciate 
in opposition to the "mystery of the divine will." 

Enlightened by the scriptures of truth, we are enabled to discern 
that the present sj^stem of the world is but the aggregate of the means 
through which God purposes to accomplish tioo grand developments — 
the one near; and the other a thousand years more remote. The 
creation of the six days, and the peopling of the earth with nations of 
mortal men, is the mere preparation and collection together of the raw 
materials for a great, glorious, and magnificent display of wonders 
upon the earth. Hitherto, these materials have been shaped, or reduced, 
from chaos into form, by the modifying influence of truth and diviyte 
judgment. But for these agencies, " a universal brotherhood " of 
savages, such as we behold in the vast howling wildernesses of Africa 
and America, would have shared the globe with the nobler beasts of the 
forest ; unmitigated socialism after this type would have effectually 
superseded all ecclesiastical and civil association ; or, if this extreme 
had given place to another, the world would have groaned under the 
ferocious despotism of a " brother of the sun and moon," a Nero, or of 
a Pope Alexander VI. 

]3ut truth and the sword of God have been thrown into the scale 
of human events. Multitudes have embraced that truth in whole or 
part ; vastly more, however, in part than as a saving whole. According 
to their apprehensions of it, • they have resolved themselves into party 

" Gen. xi. 4-8. 



MAK NOT A MERE MACHINE. 159 

groups. A minority — a great minority, so great as to be styled " a 
few,'' have seized upon it in letter and spirit. These contend against 
everything opposed to it v^ithout regard to fame, property, or life ; 
they contend, however, not with the sword of the flesh, but with 
" the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God." Not so, however, 
they who embrace it in part, corrupt it by admixture with human 
tradition, or reject it altogether. They fight for their opinions as their 
means enable them. They who corrujDt, or reject it, endeavour to 
suppress it vi et armis, by force, not of argument, but by clamour, 
misrepresentation, and prescriptive laws ; and where they can find 
scope, by imprisonment, war, and murder. 

But, there are others who understand the theory of the truth to a 
considerable extent, but have only that spirit of Hberty and sense of 
justice in them, which the truth inspires ; without that disposition to 
suffer patiently and unresisting!}^ for it, which it inculcates. Men of 
this class take the sword for liberty and the rights of men ; and con- 
tend against all who would destroy them with a courage, which strikes 
terror into their enemies. By such agency as this, by action and 
reaction, by agitating the truth revealed, and the warlike conflict it 
produces among the nations, things have been shaped into the civil, 
ecclesiastical, and social constitution of things, which prevails upon 
the earth in the present age ; and which, having waxed old, is ready 
to vanish away. 

In view of these things we come upon a very interesting, and 
indeed, immensely important inquiry, namely ; ' Upon what principle, 
or principles, did th^ God of heaven propose to carry out His purposes 
in relation to the developing of rulers for the kingdom and empire of 
nations ; and for the peopling of the globe under its eternal and 
incorruptible constitution ? ' Was it upon a purely intellectual, or a 
purely moral, or a purely physical and mechanical, principle ; or was 
it apon all these conjoined? For example, He peopled the present 
world by first creating a human pair, and then placing them under 
the natural, or physical, laws. Will He provide kings and priests for 
His kingdom, and afterwards people the globe in its perfect constitu- 
tion, by natural generation and physical regeneration ; or, upon some 
other principle revealed in His word ? Will He bestow the honour, 
glory, and dignity of His kingdom and empire upon men, because they 
are men ; or because they are descended by natural birth from right- 
eous ancestors ? Or, will men inhabit the globe for ever, because 
they are flesh, and the offspring of His creative power ? 

It will doubtless be admitted, that upon whatever principle God 
might determine to operate, it would certainly be such a one as would 
redound most to the glory of His wisdom, justice, and sovereign power. 
This being conceded, we would inquire, would it have been to the 
glory of God, if He had made man a mere machine ? — Had He made 
inexorable necessity the law of his nature, which he must yield to as 
the tides to the moon, or the earth to the sun ? No reasonable man 
would affirm this. The principle laid down in the scripture is that 

MAN HONOURS GoD IN BELIEVING HiS WOED AND OBEYING HiS LAWS. There 

is no other way in which men can honour their Creator. This honour, 



160 EDDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

however, consists not in a mechanical obedience ; in mere action without 
intelligence and volition, such as matter yields to the natural laws ; 
but in an enlightened, hearty, and voluntary obedience, while the 
individual possesses the power not to obey if he think best. There is 
no honour, or glory, to God as a moral being, in the falling oE a stone 
towards the earth's centre. The stone obeys the law of: gravitation 
involuntarily. The obedience of man would have been similar had 
God created and placed him under a physical law, which should have 
necessitated his movements, as gravitation doth the stone. 

Does -a man feel honoured, or glorified, by the compulsory obedi- 
ence of a slave ? Certainly not ; and for the simple reason, that it is 
involuntary, or forced. But, let a man by his excellencies command 
the willing service of free men — of men who can do their own will 
and pleasure ; yet voluntarily obey him, and, if he required it, are 
prepared to sacrifice their lives, fortunes, and estates, and all for the 
love they bear him ; would not such a man esteem himself honoured, 
and glorified, in the highest degree by such signal conformit}^ to his 
will ? Unquestionably^ ; and such is the honour and glory which 
God requires of men. Had He required a necessitated obedience. He 
would have secured His purpose effectually by at once filling the earth 
with a population of adults, so intellectually organized as to be 
incapable of a will adverse to His own — who should have obeyed Him 
as wheels do the piston rod and steam by which they are moved — the 
mere automata of a miraculous creation. 

Bat, saith an objector, this principle of the enlightened voluntary 
ohedience of a free agent is incompatible with benevolence ; it would 
have prevented all the misery and suffering which have afflicted the 
world, if the globe had been filled at once with a sufficient number of 
inhabitants, who should all of them have been created perfect. 

If the character of the All-wise were constituted of one attribute 
only, this might have been the case. But God is the sovereign of the 
universe, as w^ell as kind and merciful ; and all His intelligent 
creatures are bound to be in harmony with His name. He might have 
operated on the objector's principle had it pleased Him ; but it did 
not ; for He has pursued the directly opposite course. Instead 
of creating a human pair, he could, indeed, have filled the earth with 
immortals, and left them blessed for ever. But then they w^ould have 
been without character, neither virtuous nor vicious ; and, like them- 
selves, their world would have without a history. God is not merely 
an intellectual, He is also a moral, being. " The Lord, whose name is 
Jealous, is a jealous God ; " j^et "merciful and gracious, long suffer- 
ing, and abundant in goodness and truth. Visiting the iniquity of 
the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of 
them that hate 'me ; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that 
love me, and keep my commandments.'" 

Such is the name, or character, of God ; hence, as all His works 
must glorifjT Him, they must redound to His praise as a merciful and 
gracious, a just, holy, and truthful, being. The sun at noon-day, the 
moon walking in brightness, and the stars in their courses, illustrate 
His eternal power and superhumanity ; but, it is onty His relations 



THE CONDITIONS OF LIFE ETERNAL. 161 

with intellectual and morally constituted creatures- — the image and 
likeness of Himself — that can illustrate His moral glory, and redound to 
the honour of His name. 

Seeing that God hath rejected the principle of stern necessity and 
imiuediate physical perfection, there remained but one other, according 
to which He coald officer His kingdom and empire ; and at length fill the 
globe with an order of beings " equal to the angels." Upon this principle 
He has worked from the foundation of the world to this day. He 
made man a reasonable creature, and capable of being acted on by 
motive, either for weal or woe. He placed him under a law, which 
reqiiired belief of God's word and obedience. He could obey, or 
disobey, as he pleased ; he was "free to stand and free to fall." He 
disbelieved God's word ; he believed a lie, and sinned. Here was 
voluntary disobedience ; hence, the opposite to this is made the prin- 
ciple of life, namely, belief of whatsoever God saith, and voluntary 
obedience to His law. This is the principle to which the world is 
reprobate ; and to a conformity with which all men are invited, and 
urged by the motives presented in the scriptures ; even all who would 
inherit the kingdom of God, and afterwards inhabit the earth for ever, 
on an equal footing with the angels of the universe. 

The following testimonies will elucidate the principle of the divine 
economy. " I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of 
the water of life freely ; and he that ovevcometh shall inherit all 
things ; " — " Blessed are they that do his commandments that they 
may have right to the Tree of Life, and that they may enter through 
the gates into the city ; " — " To him that overcometh will I give to eat 
of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God ; " 
— "He shall not be hurt by the second death ; "■ — " To him that over- 
cometh and keepeth my loorks to the end, I will give power over 
ALL NATIONS : and he shall rule them with a rod of iron ; " — " If 
thou doest well thou shalt be accepted ; " — " These things are written 
that ye may believe, and that believing ye may have life through his 
name ; " — " As many as received Jesus, to them gave he power to 
become the sons of God, to them that believe on his name, which are 
horn, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
man, but which are born of God ; " — " Except a man be born of 
water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God ; " — 
"He that believes the gospel and is baptised shall be saved;" — 
" God will render to every man according to his deeds ; to them, who 
by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory, honour, and 
immortality — eternal life." 

But of testimonies there is no end. The law of the Lord is perfect, 
and loithout a single exception. There are no " perhapses," or 
"maybes ; " it is not "yea and nay, but amen in Christ Jesus." The 
only way to the kingdom of God, and to a participation in the eternal 
constitution of the world, is in the path of a faithful obedience to the 
law of God. 

Now from these testimonies it is plain, that to attain the rank of 
sons of God in the eternal world — where, indeed, all are sons without 
exception — haman beings, without respect to age, sex, or condition, 



162 RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

must believe and obey the truth ; for " without faith it is impossible to 
please God." This rule provides for no exceptions ; but declares the 
principle without qualification. If faith then be required, it is 
manifest that God designed to move men by motive, not b}' necessity 
— but by intellectual and moral considerations. 

Now, the carrying out of this principle necessarily involves great 
loss of human, or animal life ; for if virtue be the subject of reward, 
vice must also be of punishment. Becaase, if vice were unrestrained, 
it would gain the ascendancy ; eradicate virtue from among men as 
before the flood ; and defeat the principle, upon which it is proposed 
to effectuate the work, and thus destroy the original design. 

The mere fact of dust, by the power of God expressed in creation 
and the physical laws, assuming the form of men, does not therefore, 
entitle them to the glory of the Future Ages ; or expose them to the 
alternative of damnation in eternal death. These are doctrines pre- 
dicated upon a moral, not a physical constitution of things. The 
destiny of the animal world, and that of men, is physically the 
same ; they are all under God's physical laws, and consequently have 
" no pre-eminence " the one over the other. Man differs from other 
animals, as these differ from one another ; and if his race attain to 
the angelic nature, which God designs it shall, it will not be because 
it is human, but because it is voluntarily obedient to His laws. 

The peopling of the Future World upon this principle we have 
proved from the word. It is a principle which annihilates all human 
sophisms and traditions about "the salvation of all mankind ; " the 
" predestination of some to salvation, and of others to damnation by a 
stern, inexorable necessity ; " " physical regeneration before death ; " 
" the disembodied existence of immortal souls in heaven or hell for 
ages before the resurrection ; " the " damnation and salvation of 
infants, idiots, and pagans ; " " purification by death and resurrection 
without previous remission " — and much more unscrijotural, irrational, 
and absurd jargon of the schools, and systems of the age, 

Universalism, a wide spreading upas in the world, which teaches 
that all human beings, of whatever age or character, shall dwell with 
God eternally, is based upon a mistaken notion of God's purpose in 
the formation of the animal world. It is assumed by that shallow 
system of speculative theology that His intention was " the greatest 
possible good to the whole creation." This certainly was not His 
design ; for the principle I have demonstrated is utterly subversive of 
it. The voluntary obedience of free men implies the possibility, as 
well as the probability, of their voluntary disobedience predicated upon 
the known capriciousness of human nature. Now, as the very existence 
of God upon His throne depends upon the suppression, and therefore 
punishment, of sin (which is sorrow and pain so long as life lasts), the 
greatest possible good to all men, in the universal sense of the word, 
was no part of His design, being incompatible with the principle and 
end in view. " The greatest possible good of the whole creation," 
then, being no part of His purpose, it is a mere conceit, the idea that 
God wills the immortalization and glorifi-cation of every member of the 
human family. He has purposed no such thing. His design requires 



UNI VERBALISM A FALLACY. 163 

only the separation from the nations of a suffteient number of men and 
ivomen to occupy the globe lohen constituted on an eternal basis, without 
sea, be that many or few. 

" What a paltry, contemptible few," exclaims one, " compared 
with, the immense mass of human flesh and blood which will have 
existed on the earth for 7,000 years ! " Granted ; but what is needed 
more than a sufficient population for the renovated earth? If this 
immense mass of corruption and sin, living and dead, had listened to 
the voice of reason, if it would have believed God and obeyed Him, 
an adequate provision would have been made for them ; but they would 
not, and the consequences inevitably follow. The principle is an 
eternal one. It is persistent as God Himself ; a principle without an 
exception, and as uncompromising as the truth. 

The case of the thief on the cross only establishes the rule. He 
believed in the kingdom of God, and acknowledged Jesus while in his 
lowest estate as "King of the Jews," and therefore future monarch 
of the nation. He was by constitution one of " the children of the 
kingdom, ""^ though he had proved himself a very disreputable citizen. 
It was only necessary in his case that his faith and change of mind 
and disposition should be counted to him for repentance and remission 
of. sins ; for without this he could not enter the kingdom of God. 
The Lord Jesus, who then alone upon the earth had power to forgive 
sins, granted his petition, and so constituted him an heir of the 
righteousness which is by faith in the gospel of the kingdom. The 
case of the thief was unique, and one to which there has been none 
like before or since. 

It is proved, then, that the revealed mystery of God's wiU, which 
He has purposed in His own mind, is first to found a kingdom and 
empire of nations, lohich He will bestoiu on the crucified and resurrected 
King of the Jeios, and upon all those ivho believe the doctrine, or loord, 
concerning it, and become obedient to the faith ; and secondly, at the 
end of 7,000 years from the foundation of the world, to renovate the 
globe, and to people it loith immortal men " equal to the angels, ^^ who 
shall all have attained to the eternal state, and to the possession of all 
its transcendent glories, on the principle of believing His " exceeding 
great and precious promises,'^ and of lovingly and voluntarily obeying 
His laios. 

Behold, then, the conclusion of the matter. There are two 
systems, or worlds — the one, the animal and natural ; the other, the 
spiritual and incorruptible ; and betwee'n these a mixed state, being 
partly animal and partly spiritual, which may be termed the transition 
state. Out of the natural system, as the materials and scaffolding of 
the building, God purposes to elaborate "the ages of the ages" with 
all that shall pertain to them. Thus constituted, the globe will become 
a glorious province of the universe, and a new imperial abode of the 
Divine Majesty. It will then be a sealess^ and luminous sphere, and 
peopled with myriads of inhabitants of equal rank and station with 
the angels of God. 

a Matt. viii. 12. ^ Rev. xxi. 1. 



164 BUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

The means by wMcli, from the beginning, He determined to 
accomphsh this magnificent work were, first, by His creative energy to 
lay the foundation ; secondly, by constitutional arrangement and 
angehc oversight, which men term "providence," to shape and over- 
rule all things, so as to work out the end proposed ; thirdly, by the 
moral force of truth, argued and attested ; fourthly, by judicial inter- 
ference in human affairs ; and lastly, by recreative energy in the 
renovation of the earth. When the gigantic work is perfected, the 
edifice will be complete ; and the top stone imposed with joyous 
acclamations, saying, " Grace ! grace unto it ! " 

DISSERTATION ON THE ELOHIM. 

The principles of universal grammar require in general, that a 
"verb agree with its nominative in number and person; " as, the spirit 
moves, the waters roar. Here, the spirit is of the singular number, 
and third person ; and so is the verb moves ; hence they agree in 
number and person : " the waters " is of the third person plural, and 
so is roar; hence they also agree. But, in the first chapter of 
Genesis, this rule appears to be disregarded by the spirit, under whose 
guidance Moses wrote. In the first verse it reads, Berayshith bara 
Elohim, i.e., in the beginning Elohim created. In this sentence bara 
is the verb in the third person singular, and Elohim a noun in the 
third person plural ; so that they do not agree according to the rule. 
For an agreement to ensue, either the noun should be Eloah, or El, in 
the singular, or it should remain as it is in the plural, and the verb 
should be changed to barau ; as, barau Elohim (they) created. But it 
does not stand thus ; it reads literally (the) Elohim (he) created. 

Speaking of Elohim, Dr. Wilson sa^^s, " That this noun, which is 
not -unintentionally here joined with, the singular verb bara, is never- 
theless really plural, appears not merely from its termination im, but 
by its being frequently joined with adjectives, pronouns, and verbs in 
the plural. Vayyomer Elohim nashah adam betzalmainu, i.e., Elohim 
said, ' Let us make man in our image.' " Mr. Parkhurst, in his lexicon 
under the word alah, cites many passages where Elohim is associated 
^vith other plurals. Upon close examination there will be found no 
good reason to question the conclusion, that Elohim is a noun plural, 
and signifies " gods.""'"^ 

But, why the plural Elohim, gods, should have been associated 
with a singular verb in this chapter, Hebraists have been much per- 
]3lexed to answer satisfactorily to themselves or others. Grammar 
failing, they have had recourse to dogmatism to explain the difficulty. 
Dr. Wilson truly remarks, that " Elohim is not unintentionally here 
joined with the singular verb ; " though in my opinion Messrs. 
Wilson and Parkhurst have widely mistaken the intention. They 
imagine that it was intended to reveal a trinity of persons in one 
essence, or, as some express it, " society in God." Dr. Wilson 

■•■•'But Elohim has also a singular usage : " Thy throne, God " (Elohim) — Ps. 
xlv. G, spoken of Jesus. See also Jacob and 'the angel (Gen. xxxii.), and other 
instances. 



"the blessed and only potentate." 165 

observes that " Let us make man is an expression of consultation, and 
marks a difference in man's creation from that of other creatures in 
point of importance. ' Let us make man,' regards the animal nature ; 
' in our image,' denotes his spiritual nature, which alone could resem- 
ble the Deity. ' Let us make,' etc., 'in our image, after our likeness.' 
Here is the plurality three times expressed, and that in the first 
person ; a manifest agreement with, and proof of, the scriptural doc- 
trine of a plurality of the Deity, to which, as God is one in essence, 
we give the name of persons.'" 

Elohim " a name," says Parkhurst, " usually given in the Hebrew 
scriptures to the ever-blessed Trinity." He wrote a pamphlet against 
Dr. Priestly and Mr. Wakefield to prove a plurality of Elohim in 
Jehovah ! If the reader understand who the Elohim are, this will 
appear an extraordinary instance of learned ignorance and folly. It 
is equal to undertaking to prove, that there are three princes in one 
king ; or three angels in an archangel. In one thing, however, I agree 
with him entirely, namely, that a plurality of agents is denoted in the 
Mosaic history of the terrestrial creation. By faith we understand 
that the spirit, or word, operated in, by, and through them, in the 
formation of all things terrestrial ; but that all these agents were in 
the divine essence, constituting " society in God," is too great a camel 
for my power of deglutition. 

A first principle with me in all reasonings upon this subject is, that 
" There is one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through 
all, and in all " His spiritual family. Another axiom is, that " He is 
the blessed and Only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords ; 
who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can 
approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see.'""' And again, 
" God is spirit ; "^ and He is " incorruptible."'' The Incorruptible 
Spirit dwelling in light is the scripture revelation of the undefinable 
essence of the self-existent Eternal One, who is from everlasting to 
everlasting, God. What His essence consists in. He has not revealed ; 
He has made known to us His name, or character, which is enough 
for men to know ; but to say, that, because He is a spirit. He is 
therefore " immaterial," is to speak arrant nonsense ; for immateriality 
is nothingness ; a quality, if we may so speak, alien to the universe 
of God. 

" No man," says Jesus, " hath seen God at any time ; " but Adam, 
Abraham, Jacob, and Moses, saw the Elohim and their Lord ; there- 
fore Elohim does not necessarily mean the Everlasting Father Himself. 

Elohim is a name bestowed on angels and orders of men. It is 
written, " Worship him all Elohim."^ This is quoted by Paul* in 
the first chapter of Hebrews, as a command of the Everlasting 
Father to the angels, that they should do homage to the Lord Jesus 
as His Son, when He shall introduce him into the world again at the 
opening of the Future Age. It is also written concerning him, 
" Thou hast made him a little lower than the Elohim." Paul applies 

« 1 Tim. vi. 15 : i. 17. '^ John iv. 24. « Rom. i. 23. ^ Psalm xcvii. 7. 
"••■ See note, page 35. 



166 EUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD. 

this to Jesus, saying, " We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than 
the angels." He continued inferior to them a little upwards of thirty 
years, from his birth of the flesh to his resurrection ; when he was 
exalted far above them in rank and dignity, even to the " right hand 
of power," which is enthroned in light, where dwells the Majesty in 
the heavens. 

Those to whom the word of God came through Moses are styled 
Elohim, as it is written, " I have said ye are Elohim ; and all of you 
children of the Most High ; but ye shall die like men, and fall like 
one of the princes."" " Thou shaft not revile the Elohim, nor curse 
the Ruler of thy people ; "^ that is, thou shalt not revile the magis- 
trates, nor curse the high priest, or king.'' 

Furthermore, it is a well established principle of the sacred 
writings, that what the Everlasting Father does by His agents, He is 
considered as doing by Himself. There is a maxim in law similar to 
this which runs somehow thus, qui facit per alios, facit per se, what 
one doth by, or through, others, he does of himself. If this be borne 
in mind, many seeming incongruities will be harmonized. Thus, the 
Lord is said to have appeared to Abraham, as he sat in his tent- 
door •,'^ but when he first caught sight of the visitant, he did not see 
the Lord, but " three men," or Elohim, of whom one was the chief. 
Eead the whole chapter and to verse twenty-nine of the next, and it 
will be seen that the Everlasting God talks and acts by, or through, 
these Elohim, but chiefly through one of them, styled the Lord God. 

In another place, God is said to appear to Jacob, ^ and, in the 
second verse, to say to him, " I am God Almighty ;" and in the 
thirteenth, " God went up from him in the place where he talked with 
him." He was then at Bethel, where formerly " the Elohim were 
revealed unto him." On that occasion he dreamed that he saw a 
ladder reaching from earth to heaven, " the Lord standing above it, 
and the angels of God ascending and descending on it." These 
angels were the Elohim, or " ministering Spirits sent forth to minister 
for them who shall be heirs of salvation."-'' On one occasion, they 
declared to Jacob the promises made to his father and grandfather in 
the name of the " Invisible God ;" he wrestled with God in wrestling 
with one of them, &c. Hence, they speak in the first person as 
personators of the Invisible and Incorruptible Substance, or Sjoirit, 
who is the real author of all they say and do. 

On a certain occasion, the Invisible God spake to Job oat of the 
whirlwind, and said, " Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of 
the earth ? Declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the 
measures thereof? Declare, if thou knowest. Or, who hath stretched 
the line upon it ? Or, who laid the corner-stone thereof : when the 
Morning Stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for- joy ?" 
Job could not answer these questions. He knew, doubtless, what the 
Elohim had done ; but " touching the Almight\%" by whose Spirit they 
operated, "we cannot," said Elihu, "find him out." The Elohim were 
these Morning Stars and Sons of God. Jesus is styled " the Bright 

« Psalm Ixxxii. 6 ; John x. 34. ^ Exod. xxiii. 28. « Acts xxii. 5. 
d Gen. xviii, 1. « Gen. xxxv. 9. .^Heb. i. 14. 



I 



THE RUACH ELOHBI. .167 

and the Morning Star," " the Da^^ Star," and the Son of God. To say, 
therefore, that the Eiohim are Morning Stars and Sons of God, is to 
speak in the language of scripture. 

The relation of the Eiohim to Him that dwelleth in the light in 
the work of creation and providence may better ajDpear by the following- 
ill astration. Experimental philosophers can form water, air, and 
earths ; they can bring down lightning from the expanse ; they can 
weigh, or rather calculate the weight of, the sun, moon, and stars ; 
they can speak by electricity ; paint by sunlight ; and outstrip the 
wind by fire. These are wonderful combinations of their genius. 
But what have these they did not receive ? And from whom did they 
receive it? They subject certain substances to certain conditions. 
They do not originate a single principle. The elements, and the laws 
to which all simple and compound bodies are subject, are independent 
of the experimenters. They may say, " Let water be formed ;" and 
by passing the electric spark through the gaseous mixture, water will 
be formed ; but it is the power of God that doth it, and not theirs. 

After a like manner, the Eiohim gave the word ; they brought 
the latent elements of the globe into play ; they gave direction and 
application to power; and the SjDirit of the Invisible God accom- 
plished all they were commanded to arrange. The Spirit of the 
Incorruptible God through the Eiohim created the heavens and the 
earth. They said, " Let there be light " ; they saw that it was good ; 
He made the expanse ; they called it heaven : — He did it all through 
them ; and they executed by His power what He enjoined. This 
power, or Spirit, being committed to them, it became " the Spirit of 
the Eiohim.'" Hence, in the beginning, the Spirit of the Eiohim 
created ; which being plainly indicated in the second verse of the 
first chapter of Genesis, needed not afterwards to be repeated ; so 
that throughout the chapter, " Eiohim " is written instead of " the 
Spirit of the Eiohim,'' and is found in connection with a singular verb, 
not as its nominative, but as the governed word of the nominative 
singular, ruaeh. Spirit understood. This is the solution I offer of this 
grammatical enigma. 

It is a part of the " strong delusion " which has supplanted the 
truth, to suppose that the Invisible God left the throne of the universe 
on a visit to this region of immensity, where, like a mechanic building 
a house. He worked in creating the earth and all things therein. 
After this fashion He is supposed to have made man ; and when His 
mechanism was complete, to have applied His mouth to his nostrils, 
and "breathed into him a particle of His own divine essence, by which 
he became a living and immortal soul." 

Such a procedure on the part of the " Onty Potentate," whose 
abode is in the light, and whose servants, the Eiohim, are innumer- 
able, would have been unfitting His dignity and u-nderived exaltation. 
He has revealed Himself to us as a Potentate, a King, a Lord, &c. ; 
now, they who fill these stations, commit to others the service of 
executing their will and pleasure. And thus it is with the Invisible 
and Eternal Potentate. His kingdom ruleth over all. His angels, or 
Eiohim, mighty in strength, do His commandments, hearkening unto 



168 RUDBIEXTS OF THE WORLD. 

the voice of His words. They are His hosts ; His ministers, that do 
His pleasure." 

In the hght of this revelation I understand the Mosaic record of 
the creation. It pleased the King Eternal nearly six thousand years 
ago, to add a new habitable province to His dominion ; not by an 
original creation of a globe, but by the re-constitution of one already 
existing as one of the solar planets. He commanded His angels to go 
and execute the work according to the order detailed by Moses. They 
hearkened unto the voice of His word ; and in six days finished all 
they were commanded to do. Bat, without His power they coald have 
effected nothing : therefore, in the history all things are referred to 
Him. He willed ; the Elohim executed by His Spirit. 

All the lower animals are more or less observant ; but the Serpent 
was the most so of all the Lord of the Elohim had made. It noted 
the objects around it, and among these observed the " gods,'^ or 
" Morning Stars and Sons of God," to whom it told Eve she should be 
like if she ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. In the 
Hebrew, the word rendered " gods " is Elohim, the same as occurs 
throughout the first chapter. From what other source but the sight 
of its eyes, unless by divine inspiration, could the serpent have derived 
information about the " gods ? " It spoke of what it had seen and 
heard. But the animals were still without a king ; therefore, said the 
Chief of the Elohim, " let us make man in our image." There was 
none like the Elohim of all the creatures the}^ had made ; therefore, 
they determined to make an animal after their form. They shaped 
him with head, limbs and body like their own ; so that he stood 
before them the earthly image of the celestial Elohim. As much their 
image as Seth was the image of his father, Adam.'' 

We have not said that man's likeness to the Elohim consisted in 
his being "very good ;" but that the Spirit of God formed him "very 
good " in the same sense that it formed all other animals so. They 
were without character ; so was he : his goodness was ph3^sical, not 
moral ; that of the Elohim was both. 

Yet, in a certain sense, man was formed in the likeness of the 
Elohim. This likeness, we have already shown, but may repeat here, 
consisted in the man's ability to manifest mental phenomena like theirs ; 
and in his susceptibility of an exaltation to their nature and rank, 
upon the same principles as they had attained thereto. By this similitude 
he was distinguished from all the other animals they had formed. He 
was constituted like to the Elohim, though of inferior nature. He 
could manifest intellect and disposition even as they, and he could 
know evil as they had done. 

Dr. Wilson observes that the phrase " ' Let us make man ' is an 
expression of consultation, and marks a difference in man's creation 
from that of other creatures in point of importance.^'' To this I have 
no objection, and I believe that the " subtle serpent " overheard the 
consultation, and was, therefore, able to tell Eve that there was a 
particular in which she should be like the Elohim, ka-elohim, by eating 
the fruit, in which she could not resemble them unless she did eat — 

a Fsalm ciii. ] 9-20. ' ?' Gen. v. 3. 



THE PERFECTIls^G OF THE SONS OF GOD. 169 

viz., in " knowing good and evil." In this point, man was unlike the 
Elohim when pronounced "very good." Nor was this item of the 
temptation a falsehood, for the Lord of the Elohim said to His celestial 
companions, " Behold, the man hath become as one of us, to know 
good and evil."'' In this, then, the man became still more like 
the Elohim, and in this likeness he hath continued ever since. Bat 
thanks to the Invisible God and Father of the saints, man is 
placed under a law of progression. His prototype has gone before. 
He was himself made " a little lower than the Elohim," for he 
took not upon him their nature, bat assumed that of the seed of 
Abraham. — His nature, however, is now like theirs, being spiritual, 
that is, INCORRUPTIBLE AND IMMORTAL. " We shall be like him," 
says John; hence, also, "equal to the angels," as Jesus hath himself 
affirmed.'' 

The Arch-Elohim said that the man had become like one of them- 
selves in the matter of knowing good and evil. This also is an argu- 
ment for his likeness to a plarality of persons ; and it further shows, 
that the Elohim were once in a condition similar to man after he had 
transgressed. The Lord of the Elohim himself declares, that they also 
had been experimentally sensible of evil, for this is the idea expressed 
by the Hebrew word yada, to know. In short, it is credible that none 
of the Elohim of the only Potentate's dominion were created immor- 
tal ; but earthly, or animal, like Adam. The eternal King is the 
only being who is originally immortal in any sense, hence it is 
written, that " He only hath immortality." The immortality of all 
other intelligences is derived from Him as a reward for the " obedi- 
ence of faith." Just men at the resurrection of the First Fruits will be 
eqiial to Elohim. 

Shall we say. that these " Morning Stars and Sons of God " did 
not attain to the spiritual nature by a progression similar to man ; 
seeing that he " who was made so much better than they," even 
Jesus, the " Bright and the Morning Star," was " made perfect 
through sufferings ? " Have they had no trials to endure ; no 
probation to pass through for the refining of their faith as gold is 
tried ? It is credible, rather, that they were once animal men of other 
spheres ; that in a former state, they were " made subject to vanity 
not willingly ; " that while in the flesh they beHeved and obeyed 
God with the self-sacrificing disposition afterwards evinced by Abra- 
ham ; that their faith was counted to them for righteousness ; that 
they succumbed to death as mortal men ; that they rose from the 
dead, and so attained to incorruptibility and immortality as the Elohim 
of the Invisible God. 

Oar mundane system is but the pattern of things in other worlds, 
which may ere this have attained to that perfection which awaits the 
earth ; and probably an illustration of what may even now obtain in 
other planets where the inhabitants have not yet progressed beyond 
the animal and probationary era of their history. Our angels, or 
Elohim, those I mean of the heavenly hosts, to whose superintendence 
terrestrial affairs are consigned, until the Lord Jesus shall assume the 

« Gen. iii. 22. ^ Luke xx. 36. 



170 RUDIiMEXTS OF THE WORLD. 

reins of government ; not all the Elohim, but those of them related 
to US, " always behold the face of God," and minister His will towards 
the sons of men. This is their glory — a part of their reward. He 
sent them to form and fill the earth with living souls. They executed 
their commission according to His purpose. 

Behold then the consummation ! Mortal and corruptible beings 
like ourselves become Elohim, mighty in strength, and framers of new 
worlds, of which the planet we inhabit, even in its present state, is a 
grand and glorious specimen. "Behold," says Jesus, once an infant 
at the breast, powerless in death, but now endued with all power, " I 
make all things neit;." He will educe from the things which exist, a 
new and magnificent world, as a fit and appropriate habitation for his 
companions, redeemed by his blood from the sons of men. This is the 
destiny set before those who shall become " equal to the angels " by a 
resurrection to eternal life. 



PHRT SEeOND. 

THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD, 
AND THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM IN RELATION TO ISRAEL AND 

THE GENTILES. 

The triitli indicated. — None but the believers of the truth can inherit the Kingdom 
of God. — Abraham " the Heir of the World." — To inherit with him, men must 
believe what he believed ; and become his children by adoption through Jesus 
Christ. — The Gospel and the things of the Kingdom one and the same. — It was 
preached to Abrahain, Israel, and the Gentiles, by the Ijord God, by Moses, 
by Jesus, and by the AjDostles. — Gospel things susceptible of a threefold 
classification. — The Keys of the Kingdom. — Intrusted only to Peter. — The 
Mystery of the Kingdom. — The Fellowship of the. Mystery. — " Apostolic 
Succession." — Qualifications of an apostle of Christ. — Import of the phrase 
" the end of the world." — " The sign " of its approach. — The Gospel preached 
to every creature by the Aj)ostles. — Modern missionaryism inadequate to the 
end proposed. 

In the former part of this work, I have shown that it has been the 
purpose of God from the foundation of the world to set up a kingdom 
and empire of nations which shall supersede all others previously 
existing upon the globe. We have now arrived at that part of our 
subject which relates to the development of this imperial constitution 
of the iDorld, which, when brought to the birth, will have occupied six 
daj^s of a thousand years each in its formation. No topic can surpass 
this in interest and importance to every man that breathes the breath 
of life. God has made the belief of the things concerning it a condition 
of partaking in the glory, honour, and incorruptibility which belong 
to it. Whatever ignorance ma}^ be overlooked, ignorance of the things 
pertaining to this kingdom alienates men from the life of God. This 
is equivalent to saying that no man can attain to eternal life who does 
not believe the gospel ; for the subject matter of the gospel is this 
very kingdom which it is the purpose o£ God to establish for the Son 
of Man and the saints. 

It is of primary importance that we believe the truth, and not a 
substitute for it ; for it is by the truth only we can be saved ; "the 
truth as it is in Jesus," neither more nor less, is that to which our 
attention is invited in the word. " The truth " is set forth in the law 



172 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

and the prophets ; but we must add to these the apostolic testimony 
contained in the New Testament if we would comprehend it ^' as it is 
in Jesusy The kingdom is the subject matter of " the truth ;" but "as 
it is in Jesus," is the truth concerning him as the king and supreme 
j)ontiff of the dominion ; d^ndi the things concerning his name, as taught 
in the doctrine of the apostles. As a whole, " the truth " is defined as 
" the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus 
Christ.'""' This phrase covers the entire ground upon which the " one 
faith,'' and the " one hope,'' of the gospel are based ; so that if a man 
believe only the ''things of the kingdom," his faith is defective in the 
''things of the name;" or, if his belief be confined to the '' things of 
the name," it is deficient in the " things of the kingdom." There can 
be no separation of them recognised in a "like precious faith "^ to 
that of the apostles. They believed and taught all these things ; God 
hath joined them together, and no man need expect His favour who 
separates them, or abolishes the necessity of believing the things He 
has revealed for faith. 

There can be no doubt of the truth of these statements in view of 
Paid's emphatic declaration that, " though we (apostles), or an angel 
from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than that which we have 
preached unto you, let him he accursed. As we said before, so say I 
now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye 
have received, let him be accursed."" Here, then, he pronounces a 
curse upon even an angel, if he should come and offer to us any other 
gospel than that which was preached by himself and the other apostles. 
It is our wisdom, therefore, to receive nothing which has not the 
sanction of their authority. Panl styles everything else but what he 
preached " another gospel," that is, " a perversion of the gospel of 
Christ ;" and, as we can only be saved by belief of the truth, such 
a gospel is both useless and injurious. 

" Gospel " is a word which signifies good neios, or glad tidings ; 
and the gospel some particular good news. " Blessed," say the 
scriptures, " are they who know the joyful sound," or the gospel ; and 
the reason is, because it makes known the "blessedness " which is to 
come upon the nations, and will give every one an interest in it who 
believes and accepts it. The gospel of God is the good news of 
blessedness promised in the scriptures of the prophets, and summarily 
expressed in the saying, " In thee, Abraham, shall all nations of the 
earth be blessed." The making of this promise to Abraham is termed 
by Paul the preaching of the gospel to Abraham ; for, says he, " The 
scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith 
preached before the gospel to Abraham, saving, In thee shall all nations 
be blessed."^ This he styles " the blessing of Abraham," which is to 
come upon the nations through Jesus Christ. 

Abraham holds a conspicuous place in relation to the blessedness 
of the gospel. He is named by Paul six times in the third chapter 
of Galatians, which he concludes by saying, " If ye be Christ's, then 
are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." Hence, 
men are required to be Christ's that they may be Abraham's seed. 

« Acts viii. 12. ^2 Pet. i. 1. " Gal. i. 8. d Qal. iii. 8. 



THE LAW OF IXHERITAXCE. 173 

But why is it so important to be of the seed of Abraham ? For the 
very obvious reason that, as the promise was made to Abraham, it is 
only by being constitutionally " in him " that any son of Adam can 
obtain a participation in what belongs to Abraham. 

This idea may be illustrated by reference to the law of inheritance 
among all civilized people. If a man be possessed of an estate, the 
members of his family alone have any right to it at his decease. 
Though all the world may be his friends, unless they are named in 
his will, they can have no part in the inheritance he may leave behind. 
And again, if he have no heir, his estate and property would escheat 
to the lord of whom he happened to hold his title ; but, to avoid this, 
it would be quite competent for him to adopt an heir according to the 
law. The person so adopted would become his seed in every respect 
save that of natural birth. In the case before us, God hath promised 
an estate to Abraham ; therefore he is styled " the heir of the world " 
(Koafioc) — that is, of the glory, honour, and power, of the nations 
throughout the globe in their millennial blessedness — a gift worthy of 
Him that hath promised it. 

Now the promise of this to Abraham and his seed, is a promise 
to no one else. No stranger can lay claim to it. He must be 
Abraham's seed, or he has no right to Abraham's property. On 
this principle, no one who is not a lineal, or fleshly, descendant of 
Abraham can inherit the world with him when God fulfils the promise. 
This is the view taken of the matter by the Jews, who found their 
hope of participation in the world when it becomes Abraham's and 
his seed's, upon the acknowledged fact, that they are Abraham's flesh 
and blood. This would be very well, if no other condition of inherit- 
ance were specified. But the word saith, that " the children of the 
flesh are not the children of God ; but the children of the promise 
(those ivho believe it) are counted for the seed."'' If the children of the 
flesh had a right to share with Abraham when he obtains possession 
of the world which God has promised him, then all descended from 
Ishmael and Esau, his son and grandson, as well as from Isaac, would 
have equal rights. But God, who not only promises the estate, but 
specifies the conditions of heirship, has restricted the inheritance to 
those termed the " children of the promise as Isaac was."^ He has 
proclaimed the great truth that " the son of the bond-woman shall not 
be heir with the son of the free-woman."'' 

To be a son of the free-woman, a man, although a Jew, must 
helieve in the promise made to Abraham; he must be of a like disposi- 
tion with Abraham ; he must be obedient like Abraham; he must 
have faith in Jesus as the seed of Abraham associated with him in the 
promise ; he must believe in his name ; he must be constitutionally 
inducted into Christ by immersion into the Father, Son, and Holy 
Spirit : — being the subject of these conditions he is included in the 
Family of God, to whose members it is said, " Ye are all the children of 
God in Christ Jesus through the faith. For as many of you as have 
been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is no distinction 
of Jew or Gentile, bond, or free, male, or female, among you : for ye 

a Rom. ix. 8. t Gal. iv. 28. ^ Gal. iv. 30. 



174 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye 
Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."" These are the 
children of the promise, the children of God, the brethren and joint- 
heirs of Jesus Christ, the sons of the free woman, and Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob's seed, who are alone entitled to possess the world with 
him. 

Jesus came to preach the gospel. " The Spirit of the Lord," saith 
he, "is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel 
to the poor ; and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."^ It is 
admitted, then, that Jesus fulfilled his mission ; consequently, in his 
proclamation, he preached the good news of the acceptable season, or 
BLESSED ERA of the Lord. Bat, what was the great focal trath of 
this acceptable year ? Let Jesus answer the question in his own 
words : "I must preach the kingdom of God ; for therefore am I 
sent ; "^ and so much did he preach about this kingdom, that the 
people became impatient, and sought to take him by force and make 
him King. But he would not permit it ; " and because they thought 
that the kingdom of God was immediately to appear, he spake a 
parable to them," in which he gave them to understand, that he mast 
lirst take a joarney into a far coantry to be presented before the 
Ancient of Days to receive from Him the kingdom, and then to return; 
when he would bestow upon his servants power and authority over the 
cities of the world."^ According to this arrangement, Jesus rose from 
the dead and took his departure ; w^hen he ascended to the right hand 
of the Majesty in the heavens, where he is now. He has not yet 
received the kingdom, glor}-, and dominion, or he would have already 
returned. He is waiting for this, " sitting at the right hand of God 
until his foes are made his footstool."^ He will then appear in his 
kingdom and rule as King over all the earth. 

The gospel, then, was preached to Abraham by the angel of the 
Lord ; and it was preached by Jesus to his own nation, and to them 
only ; for " he was not sent, save to the lost sheep of the house of 
Israel."^ Paul also declares that it w^as preached to that generation of 
Israelites whose carcases fell in the wilderness ; but it did not profit 
them because they did not believe it.^ Therefore, God sware in His 
wrath that they should not enter into the rest it proclaimed.'' Before 
he suffered on the accursed tree, Jesus sent his apostles, and seventy 
others throughout the land, to " preach the kingdom of God." In 
recording their obedience to his command, Luke says, " They went 
through the towns preaching the gospel ; "^ so that it is clear, that to 
preach the kingdom is to preach the gospel ; and to preach the gospel 
is to preach the kingdom of God. 

This is a most important demonstration ; for it enables us to deter- 
mine ichen we hear the gospel. The gospel is not preached when 
the things of the kingdom are omitted. And this is one grand defect 
in modern preaching. Either there is nothing said about the king- 
dom ; or a kingdom is preached which is a mere matter of specula- 

« Gal. iii. 20, ^ Luke iv. 19. c Luke iv. 43. ^^ Dan. vii. 13, 14 ; Luke xix. 

11-17 ; Dan. vii. 18, 27. « Ps. ex. 1. /Matt. xv. 24. ?Heb. iv. 2. 

'^Heb. iii. 18, 19. »Lukeix. 2, 6. 



HOW GOD ENDORSED THE APOSTOLIC PREAOHIIsTG. 175 

tion : a kingdom of heaven in principle, in the hearts of men, or 
somewhere beyond the skies ! But, the gospel does not treat of such 
a kingdom as this ; a mere fiction indoctrinated into men's minds by 
" the cunning craftiness of those who lie in wait to deceive." So 
inseparable is the idea of gospel from that of kingdom, that we find 
them, not only substituted for each other, but associated together as 
terms of exxDlanation. 

Thus, " Jesus went throughout every city and village, preaching 
and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God ;"^ and in the 
prophecy of Mount Olivet it is written, " Teis gospel of the kingdom 
shall be preached in all the habitable (ev cXr] otKovfievr] Roman empire) 
for a testimony to all the nations ; and then shall come the end."^ After 
he rose from the dead, he coimnanded the apostles, saying, " Go preach 
the gospel to every creature : he tliat believes and is immersed shall be 
saved ; and he that believes not shall be condemned ;" and " Lo, I am 
with you always, until the end of the world." In view of these texts, 
can anyone be so mystified as not to see that salvation is predicated 
on believing the gospel of the kingdom, and being bajDtized into 
Jesus Christ ? 

They were to preach " this gospel of the kingdom " in the name 
of Jesus. How did they execute the work ? " They went forth and 
preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the 
WORD with signs following."" They began at Jerusalem, passed 
throughout Judea, then went to Samaria, and lastly, to the end of the 
earth. They began on the day of Pentecost, and preached only to the 
Jews for several years ; at the end of which, Peter and Paul began to 
proclaim the kingdom to Gentiles also. The labours of the apostles 
were indefatigable. They filled the Roman empire with their doctrine, 
and made such an impression upon it that tumults were excited ; and 
the}'^ were charged with treason against the state, because they pro- 
claimed another king than Csesar,"^ who should rule the world in 
righteousness'' as the sovereign Lord of all the earth. " They spake 
the word of God with boldness." " The multitude of them that 
believed were of one heart and of one soul ;" and great kindness was 
among them all. In about thirty years, the gospel of the kingdom was 
proclaimed in all the world, to every creature under the heaven.^ They 
finished their work, and fell asleep, the Lord having abundantly 
fulfilled his promise of co-operating with them to the end of the world. 

Thus, the same gospel that was preached to Abraham was preached 
also to Jews and Gentiles by the apostles after the ascension of Jesus 
to the right hand of power. There was, however, this difference : when 
it was preached to Abraham and to the generation which perished in 
the Wilderness, it ivas altogether a matter of promise ; but when 
preached by the apostles to the Roman nations, some things connected 
with the promise were fidfilled : so that the gospel of the kingdom, as 
they preached it, was partly a matter of promise, partly a matter of 
history, and partly doctrinal. It was thus presented to mankind in a 
threefold point of view, which may be stated in this form : — 

« Luke viii. 1 ; Mark i. 14. ^ Matt. xxiv. 14. « Mark xvi. 20. '^ Acts xvii. 7, 31. 

eCol. i. 6, 23. 



176 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

I. Promises to be fulfilled ; or, things concerning the kingdom of 
God. 

II. Promises fulfilled already ; or, things concerning Jesas. 

III. The doctrinal import of the fulfilled promises ; or, things 
concerning his Name. 

A man might believe all the promises and their doctrinal import, 
but if he did not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the subject of 
them, he would make a very good believing Jew under the law, but 
he would not be a Christian under grace. This is the great turning 
point in the faith of an enlightened Jew, and Christian. Is Jesus of 
Nazareth the personage described in the law and the prophets ; has 
he right and title to the throne of David, and to the dominion of the 
world ? 

The Jew says, " No ; we look for another : " but the Christian 
replies, "He unquestionably is the person : we look for no other ; but 
assuredly expect the re-appearance of ' this same Jesus ' on earth, to 
restore the throne and kingdom of David ; to occupy them as the 
King of the Jews ; and to be the Melchizedec High Priest and Ruler 
of the nations." Hence, it is the foundation truth of the gospel of the 
kingdom, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Anointed King, and Son of 
the living God. He is the Rock, or Strength, of Israel ; whose power 
will never be restored till he sits upon the throne of their kingdom, 
and is acknowledged as King by the nation. 

On the other hand, a man may believe that Jesus is the Son of 
God ; that he was sent of God as a messenger to Israel ; that there 
is remission of sins through the shedding of his blood ; that he is the 
saviour ; and tliat he rose from the dead : — if he believe these things, 
but be ignorant, and consequently faithless, of " the things of the 
kingdom," he cannot obtain glory, honour, incorruptibility and life 
in that kingdom. The condition of salvation is the helief of the ivhole 
gospel and ohedience to it. It is not, " He that believes in Jesus 
Christ, and is immersed shall be saved ; " but " He who shall believe 
THE GOSPEL, and is immersed."'* Simply to believe in Jesus is to 
believe no more than in " the messenger ; " but, he was sent to preach 
the gospel to the poor ; to s how the glad tidings of the kingdom of 
God : this was his message, the message of God to the Jew first, and 
afterwards to the Greek. Let it be remembered then, that salvation 
is predicated upon helief in the messenger and in the message he 
h rings from God. 

The unhappy condition of the professing world at the present 
time is, that they have no faith in the message of God, but rather 
ridicule it, and heap insult apon those who contend for it. " I came 
to preach the kingdom of God," saj^^s Jesus. 

" Oh ! we believe that thou camest from God, because no man 
could do the miracles thou doest unless God were with him ; but we 
do not believe a word in a kingdom in Judea under thy rule. We 
have no idea of thy coming to this cursed earth again to reign in 
Jerusalem, and to sit as a priest upon a throne there. This is nothing 
but the day dream of those who take thy words, and the sayings of 

« Mark xvi. 15, 16. 



JESUS AXD THE THRONE OF DAVID. 177 

the prophets, as if they were to be understood in the carnal, or literal 
sense. It would be derogatory to the interests of God to suppose or 
desire such a consummation. No, no ; we believe thou art at the 
right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, now reigning over mankind ; 
that we are thy ministers and ambassadors on earth ; and that in 
enriching us, the world is giving its substance and doing homage to 
thee ; and that when we die we shall come to thee, and kingdoms 
rule beyond the skies ! Our churches are thy kingdom here ; and it 
is our deep and pious conviction, that the more they confide in us, 
and the less the}^ trouble themselves about the millennium, the better 
it will be for them, and for the peace of the denominations to which 
they belong." 

This is in effect the language of the religious leaders of the world,, 
and of those who surrender their understandings to the traditions with 
which they make of none effect the " word of the kingdom of God." 
But these traditions are sheer nonsense, and without the least foundation 
in the scriptures. They belong to a dark and foolish generation, and 
find their origin in the speculations of men of corrupt minds and 
reprobate concerning the faith. 

When the apostles preached on the day of Pentecost, they 
announced that God had raised up Jesus to sit upon the throne of 
David." In the porch of the temple, they told the Jews that God would 
send Jesus Christ to them at the time of the restitution.^ When 
Philip preached the word concerning Christ to the Samaritans, he 
announced " the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name 
of Jesus Christ."'' In the convention of the apostles and elders, James 
invited their attention to Peter's narrative and the prediction of Amos. 
He stated that the work to be done was to take out of the nations a 
people for the name of God, as it is written, " After this I will 
return, and raise up the dwelling place of David that is fallen, and 
close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I 
will build it as in the days of old : that they may possess the remnant 
of Edom, and all the Heathen which are called by my name. And 
I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall 
build the waste cities, and inhabit them ; and they shall plant vineyards 
and drink the wine thereof ; they shall also make gardens, and eat the 
fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall 
no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith 
the Lord."'^ 

In Athens, Paul announced that God intended to rule the world 
in righteousness by Jesus Christ ; and that He had raised him from 
the dead as an assurance of its verity." In the Ephesian synagogue 
he disputed for three months, persuading the things concerning the 
kingdom of God J Paul stood at the bar of Agrippa, and was judged 
" for the hope of the promise made of God unto the fathers ; unto 
which promise the twelve tribes of Israel, instantly serving God, day 
and night, hope to come.";? Hence, he preached the hope of Israel's 
twelve tribes, as set forth in Amos, and all the prophets ; and directed 

"Acts ii, 30. ^Acts iii. 21. « Acts viii. 12. ^^ Acts xv. 14-18 ; Amos ix. 11. 
c Acts xvii. 31. / Acts xix. 8 : xx. 20, 21-25, 27. 9 Acts xxvi. 6, 7. 



178 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDO.M OF GOD. 

their attention to Jesus as the personage whom Grod had raised up to 
aceomphsh their desire. Indeed, he told the Jews at Rome plainly, 
that he was a x^risoner in chains on account of the hope of Israel ; and 
in illustration of it, " he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, 
both out of the law of Moses and the prophets, and teaching those 
things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ." According to the law 
and the testimony he spoke, diffusing the light of the glorious gospel 
of the blessed God, for two whole years in Rome, " the great city which 
reigns over the kings of the earth."" 

To understand the relations of things, it must be known that the 
gospel stands related to Abraham's descendants before the preaching 
of John the Baptist ; to Israel from John to the day of Pentecost ; 
from this epoch until the calling of the Gentiles ; and then to the 
Gentiles at large. " The law and the prophets were until John, then 
the kingdom of God was proclaimed " to Israel by John, Jesus, the 
seventy, and the twelve. 

There was " a mystery,'' however, connected with the gospel 
Avhich was not manifested in the proclamation of it before the day of 
Pentecost. The people were taught in parables, but the apostles were 
favoured with an interpretation of them in private ; for, said Jesus to 
them, " To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom, of 
God, but to them it is not given."^ Referring to this, Paul says, 
" My gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revela- 
tion of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began. But 
')iow is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the jDrophets, made 
known to all nations for the obedience of faith."" " Pray for me," says 
he, " that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery 
of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds."'^ Again, " By 
revelation. God hath made known unto me, Paul, the mystery, which 
in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it is now 
revealed unto the holy apostles and prophets by the spirit ; that the 
Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers 
of his promise in Christ by the gospel. To me was given to make all 
men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the 
beginning of the world (otto rujy aiwviov) hath been hid in God, who 
created all things. To the intent that now unto the principalities and 
]30wers in the high places might be made known through the church 
the multifarious wisdom of God."^ 

From these writings we learn that the gospel of the kingdom of 
God is a phrase- which embraces the whole subject ; and that the 
mystery of the kingdom, and the fellowship of the mystery, are things 
]3ertaining to the gospel of the kingdom in a special sense, but unknown 
until revealed to the apostles. The mysteries of the kingdom were 
placed on record in the sacred writings ; but their signification was 
hidden from the prophets themselves, until " the keys " thereof were 
vouchsafed to the apostles. Hence, says Peter, " Of the salvation of 
souls {\}^v^u)v) the prophets have inquired and searched diligentl}^ who 
prophesied of the grace that should come unto you : searching what 

« Acts xxviii. 20, 23, 31. '' Mark iv. 2 ; Matt. xiii. 11. « Rom. xvi. 25, 20. 
rfEph. vi. 19. « Eph. iii. 3-10. 



THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM. 179 

time, or what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them 
did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and 
the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not 
unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are 
now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto 
yoa with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven ; which things the 
angels desire to look into."'* 

The mystery of the kingdom, then, has been made known, and we 
find that it had relation to the sufferings of the Christ ; and repentance, 
remission of sins, and eternal life in his name, to the Jews first and 
■afterwards to the Gentiles. The prophets, who foretold these things, 
were not able to penetrate the mystery of them ; and the angels 
themselves, who brought the word to them, desired to understand 
them. But this was not permitted ; and it was preserved as a secret 
until after the sufferings of Christ, which were to be the foundation 
•of the manifestation. 

When the " point of time " drew nigh for " the finishing of 
the transgression, the making an end of sin-offerings, the making 
reconciliation for iniquity, and the bringing in of everlasting 
righteousness,"'' Jesus, who had been anointed the Most Holy, the 
sealed prophet of the Father, and fully confirmed as Messiah the 
Prince, selected one man of the twelve (who had the least reason to 
exalt himself above his brethren as " the prince of the apostles "), 
as the depository of the keys of the Mysteries of the Kingdom 
-of Gocl. ^ 

This highly honoured individual was Simon Peter, son of Jonas, 
ivho denied his master with oaths and curses. But being converted, 
and restored to favour by his gracioas Lord, he was prepared to be 
the unaspiring " servant of the least ; " and to strengthen his brethren 
in all the trials and afflictions they were called upon to endure for the 
truth's sake. "I will give unto thee, Simon Bar-jona," said the king, 
" the keys of the kingdom of God ; and whatsoever thou shalt bind 
on earth shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose 
on earth shall be loosed in heaven."'' Here was an appointment of 
Peter in a special sense to the particular function of binding and loosing 
men on earth. 

But, we would ask any reasonable man, unspoiled by human folly 
and absurdity, if a power be conferred on A, eighteen hundred years 
ago, is it therefore bestowed on B, living eighteen centuries after ? 
The keys were promised to Peter, and not to successors of Peter, if it 
were possible for him to have them in such an office ; which none but 
the most stupidly ignorant of the scriptures would venture to affirm. 
The custody of the keys by a successor of Peter, is the most farcical 
assumption that ever poor crazy mortals were guilty of. When we 
•come to see what the keys of the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven 
are, we shall see at once, that the very use of them for the first 
time operates upon Peter's own possession of them, as the telling of a 
secret to all the world does upon his power over it afterwards by 
whom it was told. 

« 1 ret. ]-10. ?' Dan. ix. 2 k « Matt. xvi. 19. 



180 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

Had Peter, instead of using the keys, liid them till his death-hour, 
and then imparted them to a single person, this ■ individual might 
truly be said to have " succeeded to the keys." But this he did not, 
dared not, do. He communicated them to such multitudes of Jews 
and Gentiles, that they became the common property of the world ; 
and none but men, " earthly, sensual, and devilish " as the priests, 
" seducing spirits, speaking lies in hypocrisy," whose trade it is 
to "make gain of godliness ; " — none but such as these would have 
conceived of the possibility of a transfer of the keys of the Mysteries of 
the kingdom of heaven to a successor ; especially to such a succession 
of impious impostors as the prophets of the Roman See. 

A key is used in scripture as a symbol of the j)ower of revealing, 
or interpreting, secret things ; also for power in general. As a key 
is to a lock, so is power to things intellectual, moral, and politicaL 
The scriptures say of Messiah, " The key shall be upon his shoulder " — 
i.e., " The government shall be possessed by him." And again, " I 
have," says Jesus, " the key {kXelq) of Hades (adov) and of death ; " 
which is to say, that Jesus hath the power to open the abode, or 
chamber, of the dead, and to restore them to life. In these instances, 
a key is the symbol of political, and physical, power ; but it also 
represents scientific, or knowledge-imparting, power. Thus, under the 
law of Moses, it was divinely appointed that " the priest's lips should 
keep knowledge, and Israel should seek the law at his mouth : for he 
was the messenger of the Lord of Hosts." The priests, however,, 
became so corrupt and ignorant, that Israel sought in vain for know- 
ledge at their lips, and therefore perished for lack of it. The Lord 
charged this home upon them by the hand of Malachi. " Ye are," says 
he, " departed out of the way, ye priests ; ye have caused many to^ 
stumble at the law ; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the 
Lord of Hosts. Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base 
before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have 
been partial in the law."" 

This was precisely the state of things when "the Messenger of 
THE Covenant " made his appearance in Judea. He denounced them 
for their corruptions. " Ye have made," said he, " the commandment 
of God of none effect by your tradition. Hypocrites that ye are, ye 
draw nigh to God with your mouth, and honour him with your lips, 
but your heart is far from him. But in vain do ye worship him,, 
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Among these 
hypocrites were the lawyers, who, feeling the keenness of his reproaches,, 
remonstrated against it. But he turned upon them, and said, " Woe 
unto you, lawyers ! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge : ye 
enter not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered."^ 

This was the unhappy condition of the Jewish nation at the 
appearing of Jesus ; as it is of all the nations at the present time 
against whom the kingdom is shut by clerical traditions. The Lord 
Jesus came to restore to Israel the key of knowledge. " They erred 
not knowing the scriptures ;" but he was about to open them, so that 
in spite of the hypocrites, they might. enter into the kingdom of God.. 

a Mai. ii. 7, ^ Liilce xi. 52. 



THE EEVEALED MYSTERY. 181 

that men could he induced now to devote themselves to the study 
of the scriptures without regard to articles, creeds, confessions, and 
traditions ! These things are mere rubbish ; monuments of the 
presumption and folly of former generations indoctrinated with the 
wisdom from beneath. If a Berean spirit could be infused into 
them ; if they could be persuaded to " search the scriptures 
daily "" for the truth as for hid treasure ; they would soon leave their 
spiritual guides alone in all their glory of mysticism and patristic lore, 
and rejoice in the liberty of that truth which can alone make men 
" free indeed." 

The gospel invites men to enter into the Kingdom of God. The 
way of entering is made exceedingly plain in the Bible. There is 
now no hidden mystery concerning it as there was before the sufferings 
of Christ were manifested. The mystery of the kingdom has been 
unlocked. The key of knowledge has been given ; but unfortunately 
it has been stolen again b}^ Peter's pretended successors ; and, upon 
a smaller scale, by every other ecclesiastic who would discourage or 
throw hindrances in the way of a free, unbiassed, and independent 
examination and avowal of Bible truth in their churches ; or, an 
unrestricted advocacy of it, though at variance with the institutes of 
dogmatic theology, in all the pulpits of the land. 

The leaders of the people dare not permit such a course to be 
pursued ; for the Bible is hostile to their systems, and sets forth 
things which, if believed, would empty their rostrums, disperse their 
flocks, and close their doors ; and elaborate such a social revolution, 
that truth and righteousness would triumph in the midst of the 
earth ; and the people be enlightened in the knowledge which comes 
from God. Such a consummation, however, need never be hoped for, 
so long as the instruction and government of the nations are in the 
hands of the existing orders of rulers,- lay and ecclesiastical ; for 
*' like priests, like people," and vice versa ; they are corrupt and 
altogether gone out of the way ; and, therefore, are devoid of all 
power to resuscitate the things which remain, and which are ready 
to vanish away. 

Before a man can enter into the Kingdom of God, he must be 
unloosed from his sins in the present state ; and liberated hereafter 
from the prison-house where the dead lie bound in chains of intense 
darkness. The unloosing from sins, Jesus committed to Peter ; but 
the enlargement from the chamber of death, he reserved to 
himself.^ 

Knowledge is the hey to remission, or release from sins, and to an 
entrance into the Kingdom of God. No one can enter this kingdom 
in his sins, and destitute of a character ajDproved of God ; and none 
could answer the question, " How can a man obtain the remission of 
sins ; and what kind of a character would God henceforth account 
worthy? " — until the apostle Peter revealed the secret, conununicated 
to him by the Spirit, on the day of Pentecost. If the reader peruse 
the second chapter of the Acts, he will there learn how Peter used 
one of the keys of the kingdom given to him by its King. On that 

« Acts xvii. 1], 12. i Rev. i. 18 : xx. 1. 



182 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDO^it OF GOD. 

occasion, I say, lie used but one of the keys. He rev^ealed the mystery 
of the gospel of God's kingdom to Jews only. 

They believed in the kingdom, glory, and dominion, promised to 
the Son of Man in Daniel and the prophets ; they were well aware 
that the kingdom was to belong to their nation ; that the King was to 
be David's son, and to live for ever ; and that the righteous were to 
take the kingdom with him : these things were the substance of the 
national hope ; but they did not then know upon what conditions 
the obtaining of them was predicated. Hence, it was Peter's duty to 
instruct them. He first recalled to their recollection certain notable 
things concerning Jesus. That the wonders he performed b,y the 
power of God evidently showed that God approved him ; that they 
had been guilty of his death in clamouring for his crucifixion ; but 
that all this was predetermined of God ; that God had " loosed him 
from the pains of death " by raising him from the dead. He then 
proceeded to show by their prophets that the things which had thus 
happened to Jesus were verifications of certain predictions. He 
adduced the testimony of David, that the Christ was to be " raised 7ip 
to sit upon David's throne/' and consequently, must previously suffer 
death ; and that after he was resurrected, he was to ascend to the 
right hand of God. He then concluded by saying, " Let all the house 
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom 
ye have crucified, both Lord and King Anointed (XpLcrrog, Messiah).'" 
For the truth of this statement he appealed to what they saw and 
heard ; to the cloven tongues like fire sitting upon their heads, the 
" sound of a rushing mighty wind," and the many languages spoken 
by Galilean fishermen without previous study. 

The result of the apostle's reasoning was their conviction that 
Jesus was indeed the King of Israel, even the Shiloh that had been 
promised them for so many ag-es. They acknowledged him to be the 
" Son whose naime should be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty 
God, the Father of the Future Age (Avi Ad), the Prince of 
Peace."" This belief, however, also convinced them that, being this 
great personage, they had committed an enormous crime ; and had 
" killed the Prince of Life." Their consciences smote them ; " the}' 
had denied the Holy and Just One, and desired a murderer before 
him ;" and had imprecated his blood upon themselves and their pos- 
terity. Of what use was their faith to them in this extremity ? They 
believed in the kingdom, they believed in Jesus, they were penetrated 
with remorse, but still they were conscious onty of guilt, and of judg- 
ment well-deserved. It was yet a hidden mystery to them what should 
be done for pardon of this great transgression. What was " the right- 
eousness of God " which He required of them ? Should they go to 
the high priest, and offer a whole burnt offering, and confess their 
sin? This would have been impracticable. Caiaphas would have 
offered sacrifice for theiu upon the altar upon no such confession as 
this ; for in confessing themselves sinners for killing Jesus, they would 
have charged the high priest as a principal in the crime. To what, or 
to whom, were they to look for a solution of "the mystery?" Who 

" Tsaiali ix. G. 



Peter's preaching on the day of pentecost. 18S 

could unlock it, and o]^en to them the door of liberty, and loose them 
from their sins ? 

Is not the reader prepared to answer, " The Holy Spirit alone 
could reveal to them of righteousness, because Jesas had gone to the 
Father?"'' This is true; and the time had arrived to do it. But 
how, or through what channel, was the spirit to do this ? Was it to 
be by words thundered from heaven ; by a still, small voice whisper- 
ing in their ears ; by a feeling that they were forgiven ; by words of 
inspiration spoken by the » tongues of angels ; or by the mouth 
of man ? After what has been said, the reader will be prepared to 
say, " The keys of knowledge, or the power to reveal the secrets of 
the kingdom of heaven, were committed to Peter ; therefore, the 
new doctrine concerning righteousness, or justification to life, was to 
be revealed through him." This is also true ; but the " devout Jews" 
were ignorant of this arrangement ; therefore, instead of addressing 
Peter alone, they inquired of all the apostles, saying, "Men and 
hrethren, ivhat shall we do 9 "^ Mark, reader, though the question 
was pLTt to all, only one of them, and that one, Peter, replied to the 
inquiry. He was the spokesman of the twelve, by whose mouth 
God had chosen that Israel should hear the word of the gospel, and 
believe ; or, as Paul writes, " The gospel of the circumcision was 
committed to Peter, in whom God wrought effectually for the 
purpose. "'^ 

The answer given by Peter announced for the first time, what 
believers of the gospel of the kingdom and in the things concerning 
Jesas, must do, in order to become joint-heirs with him of the pro- 
mise made to the fathers. To these devout Jews, who now beheved 
what both the prophets and apostles had spoken, who were now 
humbled in disposition as little children, swift to hear, and anxious 
to do, whatever the spirit should dictate ; the holder of the keys 
to unlock the mystery of the gospel, said, " Repent and be baptized 
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission 

OF SINS."-^ 

Such an annunciation as this had never been made before. In 
this way " repentance and the remission of sins " were *' preached 
in the name- of Jesus.'' This is God's way of righteousness, and 
besides this, there is no other way of salvation ; " for there is none 
other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be 
saved. "'^' God's salvation is placed in the name of Jesus ; and this 
name is accessible to mankind, only upon the condition of believing 
" the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus," 
and being baptised in his name — " He that believes the gospel 
and is baptised shall be saved " — is the unrevoked fiat of the Son 
of God. 

The words of the Spirit by the mouth of Peter went home to 
the hearts of these devout Jews. " They that gladly received his 
word were baptised : and the same day there were added to the 
congregation about three thousand souls. And they continued stead- 

« John xvi. 7, 10. ^ Acts ii. 37. " Gal. ii. 8. ^ Acts ii. 38 ; See also Page 121. 

^ Acts iv. 12. 



184 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

lastly in tlie apostle's doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of 
bread, and in prayers,"'^ These disciples were ** a kind of first- 
fruits of God's creatares begotten of his own will hy the ivord of 
truth,'' ^ which " lives and abides for ever.'' 

But, though the mystery of the gospel was thus made known in 
the name of Jesus, even Peter, to whom the keys of the mystery were 
given, did not yet understand " the fellowship of the mystery." The 
keys were not given to him when Jesus spoke the words ; nor were both 
of them given to him on the day of Pentecost. The mystery was 
revealed to the Jews first ; and several years elapsed before it was 
known, or supposed, that the Gentiles would Ige admitted to a joint- 
heirship with Jesus on an equality with the Jews. During this 
period of about seven years, the body of Christ consisted solely of 
believing Israelites, sons of Abraham by flesh and faith. 

At the end of this time, however, God determined to " visit the 
Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name." He graciously 
resolved to invite men of all the nations of the Roman territory to 
accept honour, glory, and immortality, in the kingdom and empire 
about to be established on the rains of all others. Hitherto he had 
only invited his own people Israel to this high destiny ; but now he 
was about to extend the gospel call to the nations also. 

Before this, however, could be accomplished according to the 
principles laid down in God's plan, it was necessar}?- to prepare Peter 
for the work. Although an apostle, he was still a Jew, and had all 
the prejudices of the Jew against the Gentile. He considered it 
" unlawful for him to keep company, or come unto one of another 
nation." The Jews had no more social deahngs with the Gentiles 
than with the Samaritans. And if an^^ had suggested the propriety 
of his going and preaching: the Kingdom of God and the Name of 
Jesus to Gentiles, he would have positively refused. If, however, he 
had been ever so willing, he could not have done it for various other 
reasons. 

In those days, no one could preach effectually unless he were 
sent ; and, as he had not been sent of God, his mission would have 
been a failure. Then, he did not know whether God would accept the 
Gentiles on the same conditions as the Jews, if, indeed. He Avould 
admit them to a joint heirship at all. But, the law was a sufficient 
wall of separation to keep Jewish preachers and Gentiles apart until 
God's time should arrive to do it away, and to bring them together 
into " one bod}^" 

Peter, then, liad to be prepared for the work. The narrative of 
his preparation is contained in the tenth chapter of Acts. A direct 
attack was made upon his prejudices. He became very hungry about 
12 o'clock in the day. While waiting for something to eat on the 
housetop, an amazement came over him. In this state, he saw a 
great sheet full of all sorts of unclean creatures, fit and appropriate 
emblems of the moral condition of the Gentiles. At this crisis, the 
Spirit said, " Rise, Peter, kill and eat ! " But Peter preferred hunger 
to defilement ; and would not consent, until it was repeated for the 

" Acts ii. 41, 42. ^ James i. 18. 



CORNELIUS, AND WHAT HE HAD TO DO. 185 

third time, that the legal distinction between clean and unclean was 
done way: — "What God hath cleansed, call not thou it common," 
or unclean. 

The impression made upon Peter by this vision is best expressed 
in his own words. " God hath showed me," says he, " that I should 
not call any man common, or unclean. Therefore, came I to you, 
Gentiles, as soon as I was sent for." In this way the second key of 
the kingdom was imparted to him. Its use was to make known the 
Fellowship of the Mystery. 

As soon as Peter's preparation was complete, even while he was 
debating within himself the meaning of the vision, three Gentile 
messengers from Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian regiment, arrived 
from Caesarea, to request him to visit him. The Spirit told Peter to go 
with them, nothing doubting, for He had sent them. 

Now, while God was preparing Peter's mind for a ready obedience, 
He had sent a messenger to tell Cornelius to send for Peter. It 
would be well for the reader to reflect on the character of Cornelius 
before the angel visited him. He was not a pagan Gentile, or a wicked 
sinner in danger of hell-fire ; but a proselyte of righteousness, or an 
outer-court worshipper. " He was a just and devout man, and one that 
feared God with all his house ; gave much alms to the Jews, among 
whom he was of good report ; and he prayed to God alway." No better 
man, lay or clerical, can be produced from any modern sect than 
Cornelius. He was a God-fearing, " pious," and generous-hearted man. 
He was not a perverse, hot-headed, ignorant disciple of some sect ; but 
a man approved of heaven, whose prayers and alms ascended before 
God as a memorial of him. 

But why dwell so on the character of this excellent man ? Because 
a special messenger was sent from heaven to tell even this good man, 
this just and devout Gentile, to send for the apostle Peter, that he 
might come from Joppa, and tell him lohat he ought to do. But, as 
though this were not explicit enough, the angel stated that " Peter 
should come and tell him loords, luherehy he and his house anight he 
saved.'' Now it is worthy of especial note by the religionists of this 
self-complacent generation, that this just person was not in a saved 
state under the new order of things : that he had both to hear ivords 
and to do something for his salvation which he had then as yet neither 
heard nor done. And let it be observed, furthermore, that the angel 
of God was not permitted to preach the gos|)el to Cornelius ; or, in 
other words, to tell him what he ought to do ; or " the words by which 
he and his house might be saved." He was only allowed to tell him 
to send for Peter. 

According to modern notions, this was quite unnecessary ; for, 
cries pojDidar ignorance, it would have saved both time and trouble if 
the angel had told Cornelius at once what it was necessary for so 
excellent a man to believe and do, instead of sending three men through 
the broiling sunshine to fetch Peter to Csesarea. what a lesson is 
contained in this interesting narrative for the " clergy," " ministers," 
and people of these times. How it convicts them of infidelity of the 
gospel, and sinfulness before God ; or, if sincerity be granted to them, 



186 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

and, doubtless, there are among them many honest and well-intentioned 
persons, who " err, not knowing the scriptures ;" grant, then, that they 
sincerely love truth in the abstract, yet comparing their creeds and 
preaching, and practices, with the testimonies contained in the second, 
tenth, and eleventh "of the Acts, to say nothing of others — how 
condemned are they as vain talkers, and deceived leaders of the blind. 
It is really painful to listen to the superficial dissertations of the 
textuaries, retailed to the people from the pulpits of the day. Theo- 
logical speculations on isolated scraps of scripture are substituted for 
the words of Peter and the other apostles, by which alone even the 
" pious " can be saved. Tlie}^ talk of true religion, of primitive 
Christianity, of the gospel, of churches of Christ, and of an evangelical 
ministry ; but where among Papist or Protestant, Church or Dissent, 
are these things to be found, reflecting the precepts, precedents, 
and morality of the " pure and undefiled religion " of tfie New 
Testament ? 

This New Testament Christianity is the grand desideratum of the 
Protestant world ; which, however, we despair of beholding even in 
theory nntil Messiah shall appear in his kingdom, and abolish all 
existing names and denominations, which serve, indeed, as a kind of 
ecclesiastical police, but are perfectly useless as institutions capable of 
indoctrinating mankind with the things which they ought to believe 
and do, if they would become joint-heirs with Jesus of the kingdom, 
glory, and empire of the Ancient of Days. 

From the testimonies before us, then, we learn, 

1. That " piety " and morality alone, will not save men ; 

2. That good and pioiis men must believe certain things, and do 
certain others, for salvation ; 

3. That these things, indispensably necessary to salvation, are 
set forth in Peter's words spoken to his contemporaries ; 

4. That Peter's words are the keys to the mystery, and fellowship, 
of the gospel of the kingdom ; 

5. That there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles in 
relation to this mystery ; 

6. That God hath appointed men, and not angels, to preach the 
gospel ; 

7. That Peter was to be sent for, because to him alone the keys 
were given ; 

8. That, though piety and morality alone cannot save ; neither 
can faith, unaccompanied by fruits meet for repentance, give a man 
inheritance in the kingdom of God. 

Peter having arrived at the house of Cornelius, announced to all 
present, " the things which God had commanded him to speak." 
Having stated the great discovery made to him by the spirit, how that 
" God was no respecter of persons ; but that in every nation he that 
fears him (not however with that fear " which is taught by the pre- 
cepts of men "), and works righteousness (such as God requires) is 
accepted of him : " — he directed their attention to " that word which 
God sent unto the children of Israel by Jesus Christ," preaching peace. 
He told them that they were acquainted with that word ; for it was 



PETER AT THE HOUSE OF CORXELTU.S. 187 

published tbronghiout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after John's, 
proclamation. As the}^ knew it, he did not occupy time in repeating" 
it in detail. The reader knows what the word was that God sent to 
Israel by Jesus Christ, for we have already spoken of it ; but, lest it 
should have escaped him, we will reiterate it. 

" I was sent," says Jesus, " to preach the kingdom of God." This 
was his message to Israel. Hence, he styles it in the parable of the 
sower, " the word of the kingdom." This word was so notorious to 
all that sojourned in the land of Israel, that it was as familiar as any 
question could possibly be. It was known also to every one, how that 
Jesus was anointed, or christened, with the Holy Spirit at his immer- 
sion in the Jordan by John ; and how he went about doing good and 
healing the infirmities of the people ; and none knew better than 
Roman centurions, that he was slain and hanged on a tree. These 
were matters of household notoriety and belief. A far more com- 
prehensive faith than that of the moderns. But yet impotent to the 
justification of Cornelius and his house. More words were yet to be 
reported to them. 

Peter therefore affirmed that God had raised him from the dead ; 
and shown him openly, not to the public in general, but to certain 
witnesses previously chosen for the purpose, even to the apostles, who 
could not possibly have been deceived, because they ate fish and bread 
with him, and drank with him, after he rose from the dead. These 
things the}^ heard and believed. The next thing he declared to 
them was, that God had commanded them to preach to the people 
Israel, and to testify, that Jesus was he that is appointed of God to be 
the Judge of the living and the dead." Now, said Peter, and this was 
the fellowship of the mystery, " To him give all the prophets witness, 
that WH0S0E\"ER helieveth in him shall receive remissiox of siks 

THROUGH HIS NaME." 

This was new doctrine to Gentiles. They had heard of it before 
as preached to Jews ; but they heard it now for the first time, that 
*' tohosoever believed," whether Jew or Gentile, should receive remis- 
sion of sins through his Name. Peter had made a very straight- 
forward and simple statement of truth to them. This he called 
preaching " repentance and remission of sins in the name of Jesus." 
There was no sermonizing, or text- weaving ; no scratching of itching 
ears ; every thing was delivered in a concise and dignified manner, 
which carried the impress of truth upon its very front. But, he not 
only opened the mysters' of the Gospel of the Kingdom to these 
Gentiles, but he " preached the gospel to them with the H0I3' Spirit 
sent down from heaven " ; for, " while he 3'et spake these words, the 
Holy Spirit fell on all them who heard the Word." When the six 
Jewish Christians, who accompanied Peter, saio this, they were 
astonished, because that on the Gentiles was poured out the gift of 
the Hoh' Spirit as on the apostles themselves on the day of Pentecost. 
They could, make no mistake about this, for "they heard them speak 
with tongaes and magnify God." 

« 2 Tim. iv. 



188 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDO:\[ OF GOD. 

Here, then, was the Word preached, and the Word confirmed by 
the Lord working with Peter. No one that heard the account of these, 
things could doubt for a moment, whether " God had purified their 
hearts by faith," and accepted them. But still there was something 
wanting. Peter had told them of remission of sins through the name 
of Jesus to every one tiiat believes in him ; but he had not informed 
these believers, how they could avail thems3lves of this omnipotent 
Name. How were they to be washed, sanctified, and justified, by this 
Name ? How were they to take it upon them ? In what manner was 
it to be named upon them ? Ths apostle says, that when the Spirit 
fell upon them, he had only " began to speak." If he had not been 
interrupted by this extraordinary effusion, he would doubtless have 
fully explained himself upon this point ; for, he was not only 
commanded to preach the name of Jesus, but to command helievers 
to be immersed " into the Name (elg to ovo/xaj of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."'^ 

Here, then, is a great matter. The name of Jesus is placed in the 
institution of immersion, based on an intelligent, child-like, belief of 
''the things of the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ.'" 
God has always placed His name in His institutions. Under the law 
He jDlaced it in the Tabernacle, and afterwards in the Temple at 
Jerusalem ; but, under grace, He has placed it in such a baptism as 
we have just defined, in conformity to which we can " worship him 
in spirit and in truth," without going to Jerusalem or Samaria. 
Cornelius and his household were in Caesarea, and in a private house. 
Peter did not require them to go to Jerusalem, or to a synagogue, in 
order to worship, or do homage, to God in spirit and in truth. They 
had belies/ ed the truth spoken by the spirit through Peter ; and they 
awaited the command of the spirit as to the manner in which they 
might work the righteousness of God. Peter, feeling his way with 
ctiution, because of his six brethren of the circumcision who accom- 
jDanied him, inquired, " Can any man forbid water, that these should 
not be immersed, who have received the Holy Spirit as well as we ?" 

From this question we learn that there were cases in those days 
in which the use of water was forbidden, or considered as improper. 
The apostles did not preach water to the people as the moderns do. 
Tliey permitted no one to have access to the water unless they believed 
he was a proper subject. They were sometimes deceived, but that 
was not their fault ; they did their best to discharge their dut}^ faith- 
fully. If a man did not believe the gospel of the kingdom of God 
and the name of Jesus Christ, they would not immerse him ; for it 
was commanded them that " he that believeth not should be con- 
demned," i.e., should not be unloosed from his sins in the name of 
Jesus. 

The paidorhantists do well to refuse to be immersed ; and the 
Baptists do wrong to urge it upon them. For the sprinklers do not 
believe the gospel of the kingdom, and neither have they the S23irit of 
the gospel ; and, therefore, they are not fit to be immersed. The 
institution of God's name ought not to be desecrated by the immersion 

« Matt, xxviii. J 9. 



BLASPHEMOUS BABY-SPRINKLING. 189 

of such misbelievers into its formula. Water should be forbidden them. 
It is not water, bat faith, they need at present — that one, heart-purifying 
faith, such as Cornelius and his household possessed, and " without 
which it is impossible to please God." 

It cannot be said that the paidorhantists (from Tzaiceg infants, and 
'payriarai sprinKlers, that is, infant-sprinklers) make too little of water ; 
one great offence against high heaven which they commit, is making 
infinitely too much of it. The efficacy the apostles put in the heart- 
purifying faith and conscience-cleansing name of Jesus, they place in a 
few drops of " holy," or common, water, and a physical regeneration 
of a hypothetic principle in the flesh ! They require no faith, no 
repentance, no confession to qualify their subjects for the water and 
formula of the Xame. They ask only a suckling of eight days, with 
godfathers and godmothers, whose characters are not even inquired 
into, to answer questions, which oftentimes they do not understand, 
and oftener have no intention to conform to the requirements of ; or, 
dispensing with these godless gods, give them the infant with a proxy 
jDarental faith in the dogmas of a sect, and it will suffice. 

Paidorhantist "ministers," with solemn mockery of the holy and 
august name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, will sprinkle th& 
face of the mindless weekling, and impiously proclaim to the people, 
that such is the " one baptism " of the religion of Christ ! ! ! Is it 
not wonderful, that God has witnessed this blasphemy for ages, and 
not rent the heavens with indignation upon them. Great, indeed, is 
the forbearance of the Most High ; but, the time hath at length come, 
when His patience will have an end. How astounding is the 
presumption of such ! " The people of the Lord," say they, " are we ! 
Wisdom will die with us ! " Yet they are faithless of the words of 
Peter, for they do them not ; and have changed the ordinance of God, 
and made it contemptible. A rhantized, but unbaptised, community, 
is the vast majority of the professing world ; and therefore "without 
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers 
from the covenants of promise, having no hope (no true one) and with- 
out God in the world." They that honour God, He will honour ; but 
they who seek honour one of another, and desecrate His name, are 
fattening their hearts for the day of slaughter ; and are fit only for 
capture and destruction. 

Cornelius and his household differ from these in toto. They all 
believed the words of Peter, awaiting his commands. He had inquired 
if there were any present who could, in the face of what they saw and 
heard, " forbid water that they should not be baptised." He doubtless 
paused a reasonable time, that objections might be urged if any could 
possibty exist. But all Jewish prejudices were abolished by " the 
demonstration of the spirit," and they held their peace. Things being- 
brought to this crisis, it only remained for the Spirit of God to j)ro- 
nounce the word. Therefore, Peter opened his mouth, and " C0MMAm)ED 
them to he baptised in the name of the lord." 

After this manner Peter used the keys of the kingdom of hea,ven 
given to him by the Lord Jesus Christ. When he had accomplished 
this work, he no longer retained the poiver of the keys. They were 



190 THE THINGS OF THE KINGIX)M OF GOD. 

transferred to the multitude of tlie believing Jews and Gentiles. The 
spirit had revealed the m^^stery of the kingdom, and the fellowship of 
the mystery, by the mouth of Peter on Pentecost, and at Csesarea ; so 
that the keys became the common propert}^ of all believers. The Lord, 
^'who hath the key of David, hath opened and no man can shut ;"" He 
hath set before the Gentiles " an open door, and no man can close it," 
so long as the scriptures are in the hands of the people. The false 
prophet may dangle keys at his girdle, and affect the power of the Son 
of God ; but so long as " the law and the testimony " are accessible, 
" whosoever is athirst may come ; and whosoever will, may take the 
water of life freely." The scriptures contain the keys. Popes, priests, 
clergy, and ministers may suppress, torture, and garble the truth, and 
throw hindrances in the way ; but the man who discards their authority, 
and thinks for himself, may, by the enlightening efficacy of the living 
word, become " wise unto salvation by the faith which is in Jesus 
Ohrist." Let the people then help themselves, if they would that God 
should aid them. 

From what has been advanced it is manifest, that " the word of 
the kingdom " presents itself to us in the scriptures in a threefold 
relation ; 

1. As the gospel preached to Abraham, &c.; 

2. As the same gospel preached in the name of Jesus on Pente- 
cost, or the mystery of the gospel of the kingdom ; and, 

3. As the fellowship of the mystery of the gospel preached, first 
by Peter to circumcised Gentiles ; and afterwards by Paul to the 
worshippers of idols. 

These are not three gospels ; but one and the same gospel, as 
before stated ; originally all promise ; then promise, history, and doc- 
trine, preached to Jews only ; and afterwards offered to the Gentiles 
upon the same terms as to the Jews. But, though I have set forth 
these things with some minuteness, the reader will still feel that the 
treatise is incomplete so long as I have not set forth " the tilings con- 
cerning the kingdom of God," to which such frequent reference has 
been made, as the grand theme of " the glorious gospel of the blessed 
God ; " and, without the knowledge of which, a man's faith is destitute 
of the " one hope of the calling ; " which is the anchor of the soul 
both sure and steadfast within the veil in Christ Jesus ; who is there 
" waiting to receive the kingdom and return." This, then, will be the 
subject of future illustration, in the hope that we shall make it so 
plsiin that " he may run who reads." I shall now proceed to say a 
few words upon 

APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. 

" Divines " contend that the mantle of the apostles fell upon the 
elders, or bishops, of the churches, who survived them ; that these 
survivors were " the successors of the apostles, ^^ and that when these 
died away, the apostolic mantle fell upon those who succeeded to their 
offices in the churches, being invested by the imposition of hands ; 
and that thus from generation to generation until the present day, the 

«Piev. iii. 7-8. 



APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. 191 

succession has been perpetuated by tlie institution of ordination, or 
" boly orders ; " so tbat the living orders of ecclesiastics, composed of 
pope, cardinals, bishops, priests, and ministers, are " successors of the 
apostles," endued with like authority and power in the churches, and 
entitled to the same obedience and consideration. 

They found their claim to these high pretensions upon certain 
passages of scripture, written concerning the apostles and their 
co-labourers ; which they apply to themselves ; and argae that the 
grace of office has been transmitted from one to another by the impo- 
sition of " holy hands ! " Thus, when an aspirant to apostolic suc- 
cession presents himself before a bishop for ordinati on, the latter says 
to this effect, " Receive thou the Holy Ghost b}^ the imposition of 
my hands for the office, or work, of a priest in the house of God ; 
whosesoever sins you remit are remitted, and whosesoever sins you 
retain are retained." This, says the thirty-sixth article of the national 
religion, " hath nothing, that of itself is superstitious or ungodly." 
By virtue of this consecration and ordering, absolution, or remission 
of sins, is pronounced by the priest standing ap alone in the midst 
of the people, who kneel to receive it ; and in the form, it is declared 
that " Ahnighty God hath given power and commandment to his 
ministers to declare and pronounce to his people, being penitent, the 
absolution and remission of their sins." Thus, the national parson- 
ocracy claim the apostolic attribute of remitting and retaining sins, of 
binding and loosing, even as the Paj^ists ; with this modification, 
however, that they remit sins in the gross, while the latter do it both 
wholesale and retail. Thus do the national and Popish clergy speak 
blasphemy'' continually. 

But the state-clergies are not alone in their assumption of 
apostolicity ; the Dissenters are condemnable on the same account. 
They claim to be ambassadors of Jesus Christ ; and they permit 
none to "administer ordinances " who are not ordained by the 
imposition of hands. The ordained do not undertake to forgive sins 
after the manner of the apostles ; but they apjDly to themselves 
scriptures which relate only to the apostles, by which the}^ constitute 
themselves their " successors." 

But, the truth is, that neither State, nor Nonconformist, clergies, 
are intitled to be regarded as " successors of the apostles." The 
nature of the office may be comprehended by the qualifications of the 
office-holder which were indispensable. They may be thus stated. 

1. An apostle of Christ to the circumcision must be one who has 
companied with the Lord Jesus, from his baptism until his ascension ; 
so as to be a witness to his resurrection •} 

2. An apostle of Christ to the Gentiles must have seen 
Jesus ;" and have conversed with him as well as the former : 

3. An apostle must be chosen, ordained, and sent of the 
Lord f and authorized by him to forgive and retain sins.*" 

4. An apostle must be able to work signs, and wonders, and 
mighty deeds, as signs of his apostleship.^ 

a Matt. ix. 2, 3, 6. ^> Acts i. 21, 22, 8. « 1 Cor. ix. 1. d Jokn xv. 16. 
e John XX. 22, 23. / 2 Cor. xii. 12 ; Gal. ii. 8. 



192 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

5. To be an apostle a man must, have believed the pure gospel of 
the Kingdom of God," have been immersed,^ and walk according to 
the trath of it.'^ 

With these qualifications, the thirteen apostles {aTroaroXoi, men sent 
loitli commands) directed the affairs of the churches, which they had 
formed and established in the world. Their administration was in 
fact the administration of the Spirit through them ; so that in their 
word was power'^ to the healing of disease, the infliction of it," and 
the destruction of life.^ They conferred spiritual gifts upon believers 
by the imposition of their hands ;■' and gave commandments to the 
faithful as the vicegerents of the Lord.'^ Now, reason and common 
sense teach, that if men are real successors to apostolicity, they will 
be like Peter and Paul in all their qualifications and attributes ; but 
reason also teaches, that after the ascension of Jesus, no man can 
be qaalified for the apostleship unless the Lord appear to him, as in 
the case of Paul. But, the truth is, that this claim of apostolic suc- 
cession is as groundless, as the claim of the clergy of the apostasy to 
tithes on the ground of their succession to the rights of the Levitical 
priesthood. If their apostolicity be granted, it can only be as " false 
apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of 
Christ. And no marvel," continues Paul, " for Satan himself is 
transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if 
his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness ; 
whose end shall be according to their works.^ 

It is a strong hold of these pretended apostles, that the Lord 
promised to be with them always to the end of the world. They 
contend (though, as learned men they must know better) that the 
phrase " the end of the world " indicates a period of time yet future ; 
and, therefore, that Jesus had reference, not to the apostles only, but 
to their " successors " likewise. Hence, they argue that the command 
yet remains with them to be executed, which says, " Go ye therefore, 
into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." 

But to this I object, first, that the end of the world to which 
Jesus referred, arrived seventeen hundred years ago ; secondly, that 
the work enjoined upon the persons in the text was fully accomplished 
by the apostles ; thirdly, that the Lord is not with them who pretend 
to be their successors ; fourthly, that the moderns cannot execute the 
command, because they are utterly ignorant of the gospel ; and, there- 
fore, cannot be the individuals referred to. 

In the first place, the Lord Jesus did not use the phrase, " The 
end of the world," in the vulgar English sense of it. He said to the 
eleven, " Behold, I am with you, Trafrag rag {jfiepag, all the days, 
lojg rrfg frvpreXeiag rov aiiovog, until the end of the age.^^ Here are cer- 
tain days indicated, which were comprehended in the period to elapse 
from the time when Jesus made the promise, until the end of the age. 
These days are termed by Paul, " these last days ;''^ which he char- 
acterises as those in which God si)oke to the Israelites by a son, as well 

« Gal. i. 8. ?' Luke vii. 29 ; Acts xxii. 10. <= Gal. ii. U. d i Cor. iv. 20, 21. 
'■ 1 Cor. V. 4 ; Acts xiii. 11. / Acts v. 9, 10. .7 Acts viii. 14-18. 
'' Matt, xxviii. 20. ^ 2 Cor. xi. 13. i Heb. i. 1. 



JESUS AND " THE END OF THE WOELD." 193 

as those in which he was writing to the Hebrews some thirty years 
after : " These last days," says he. Now, these days taken collectively, 
he styles according to the English version, " the end of the world ; " 
as it is written, " Now once in the end of the loorld hath Jesus 
appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himseK."^ The reader 
will easily perceive by the mark in the text, that the world spoken of 
was that to which Jesus stood related by death. That it was near its 
end when he was crucified by it ; but if " the loorld " is to be taken 
in the vulgar English sense, Paul was wrong in saying, that Jesus 
sacrificed himself in the end of it ; for surely tha.t period was not the 
end of the world, which passed away eighteen hundred years ago I 
But the truth is, Paul was perfectly accurate in what he wrote. He 
knew nothing about the English sense of his words ; for there were 
neither Englishmen, nor English words in his day. He penned He- 
braisms in Greek words ; that is, he put the things God had taught 
Israel into a Greek dress. He wrote " the things of the spirit " in 
the words of the spirit selected from the Greek language. What 
he said in the text before us was, " But now once for all ettl GwreXEia 
Tii)v ai(x)V(t)y at the end of the ages hath he appeared to put away sin by 
the sacrifice of himself." The constitution of Mount Sinai was the 
founding of the Hebrew world, or Koa^ioQ ; because it ordered, or 
arranged, the things pertaining to Israel, as a system sui generis. 
This system had times peculiar to itself which were appointed at the 
promulgation of the law. These are termed in scripture anoyeg, that 
is, aions, from aei aliuay and wv passing. The etymology of aiojp does 
not express the duration of the time ; its continuance is defined by 
the Mosaic law. The Hebrew Commonwealth under the Sinaitie 
constitution was not intended to continue always. The time of its 
existence was predetermined of God, but not revealed in the law, or 
the prophets, but "reserved in his own power. "^ It is termed aiivp : 
and its approaching termination (TwreKeia rov aiMvog, the end of the 
time, that is, of the Hebrew Commonwealth under the Mosaic law. 
But, though the precise duration of this great time (1,697 years 
was kept secret ; the lesser times, or aiojveQ, aions,, of which it was 
composed, were very minutely specified as in the case of the Jubilees 
so that the whole time of the commonwealth was the aiojv tidv atiavu)v, 
the aion of the aions, the time of the times, or age of the ages. 
Hence, while the Lord Jesus designated the consummation as the 
end of the time : Paul indicated it as the end of the times, or ages. 

That the delivering of the law was the beginning of the aLb)v, or 
Hebrew world, is obvious from the words of Peter. Addressing the 
men of Israel, he said, " God wiU send Jesus Christ to yoa : whom the 
heaven must retain until times (xpo^wv) of reconstitution of all things, 
which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets air 
^aiiovoQ from the age : for Moses truly said to the fathers, &c."° In the 
authorised version ax 'aiujvog is rendered " since the loorld hegan.'' If 
this be preferred, it is evident that the world referred to was coeval in 
its beginning vdth Moses ; for he is cited as the first of the holy pro- 
phets by whose mouth God spoke of the reconstitution of the Hebrew 

a Heb. ix. 26. ^ Acts i. 7 ; Mark xiii. 32. " Acts iii. 20, 21. 



194 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

commonwealth at the appearing of Christ from heaven, Paul refers 
to the same ejDOch, saying, " The fellowship of the mystery hath been 
hid in God airo twp anovojv from the ages ; " in the common version, 
*' from the heginning of the worlds '^ From the beginning of the age, 
or of the ages, is the correct rendering of the Greek in these texts. 
They both refer to the beginning of the commonwealth of Israel in 
the giving of the law from Sinai. 

To speak in the vernacular, God ^promised eternal life to man 
hefore the world began. Such a statement as this would be incompre- 
hensible to a mere Enghsh reader ; yet such is the import of the saying, 
" God, who cannot lie, promised eternal life before the world began 
(-Trpo xpovojp aiiopicoy) ; but in due times (Kaipoig l^lolq) hath manifested 
his word in the preaching."'^ To whom did He promise it ? Certainly 
not to any one before the formation of man. The world referred to 
cannot therefore be that founded in the six days ; but a constitution 
of things long subsequent to it. A literal translation removes all diffi- 
culty. The phrase Tvpo xpovcjv aKoniov is hefore the aionian times ; that 
is, before the times of the Hebrew commonwealth were arranged, 
God promised eternal life ; and in Kaipoic idioig his own times, such 
times, namely, as are particularised in Daniel,'' He made His word, 
which had before been a hidden mystery, manifesf^ through the 
apostolic preaching. 

In the parable of the sower,^ the phrase " the ivorld " is used in 
different senses, which are not distinguished in the English version. 
Jesus says there, " the field is the world.'' Did he mean it was " the 
whole habitable," " the age," or the Israelites ; for world is applied 
to them all ? If it had been the first, he would have said " The field 
is the 6Xr] oLKovfiEvr] ; " if the second, " The field is theaiwv ; " and if the 
third, " The field is the Koafiog.'''' The last is the record in the case-. 
He represents himself as the sower ; and says that the seed which he 
sowed was " the word of the kingdom ; " that it was " good seed ; " 
and that he sowed it into the hearts of the Israelites, or " children of 
the kingdom," of whom there were two classes, good and bad.^ 

These, then, were the field, and therefore the Koa/j-og, or nation-world. 
But the enemy sowed tares into this field, which were to be gathered 
oat and burnt. This conflagration was to be at harvest-time, con- 
cerning which Jesus said, " The harvest is the end of the world.'' 
Did he mean the end of the nation-world ? No ; therefore he used 
another word, namely, aiwv instead of A.-oc7/io?. The harvest was to be 
at the end of the aion avpreXeia rov aiwvog ; and not at the end of the 
kosmos, or extermination of the nation Israel from among nations. 
The extinction of Israel from the earth will never take place ; though 
a full end will be made of aU other nations. 

But at the end of what aion was the harvest to be ? Jesus replies, 
" As the tares are gathered and burned in the fire at harvest time ; 
so shall it be ev ty] (TwreXeta rov ani)vog rovrov, in the end of this age."'="" 

« Eph. iii. 9. '' Tit. i. 2, 3. c Dan. ix. 24-2G. '^ Rom. xvi. 26. 
e Matt. xiii. 37-40. / Matt. viii. 12. 

'■'■ But the joarahle also certainly points to the end of " the times of the Gentiles." 



THE GOSPEL " PEEACHED TO E^"ERY CREATUEE UNDER HEA^-EX." 195 

That is, in the end of the aion in which he flourished. Then he wonld 
send his reapers, namely, the Romans, his angels, or messengers (ayyeXoi) 
of destruction, to " gather out of his kingdom " of Judea, all the tare- 
like children of Israel, and cast them into the place of the Lord, 
" whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem,"'^ where there 
should be wailing, and gnashing of teeth. When this should be 
accom]3lished the aion would be finished, and the commonwealth of 
Israel should " be no more until He should come whose right it is to 
reign. "^ " Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the 
kingdom of their Father." 

As Jesus sat on the Mount of Ohves, his disciples asked him, say- 
ing, " What shall he the sign of the end of the age — -i to arjideiov rrjg 
crvvreXeiag rov anovog ? or, in the common version, " of the end of the 
world? " He replied, " This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached 
in the wJiole hahitable {ev oXrj oLKovjjLEvri) for a testimony to all the 
nations : and then shall come the end."'' Having said this, he gave 
them " the sign,''^ namely, the standing of the abomination of desola- 
tion in the holy place, or city, as foretold by Daniel.'^ First, then, 
the gospel was to be fully preached to every creature by the apostles ; 
and, afterwards, the sign was to appear. Did the apostles perform 
tiieir work, or does it yet remain to be accomplished ? Their pre- 
tended successors answer, ''No, they did not." They contend that 
there are vast regions which were unknown to the ancients, where 
the gospel has never been preached ; and, therefore, that, as it is to 
bo preached to ever}^ creature, it is incumbent on them to do it ; aiid 
that the end of the world will not come until they have converted all 
the nations to Christianity ! Hence, they have established societies 
de propaganda fide both Romish and Protestant. Every principal 
sect has its missionary society, whose Utopian speculation is the con- 
version of the world under the warrant of the apostolic commission ! 
As if a command given to the apostles to preach the gospel of the 
kingdom, were a command given to modern missionaries to go and 
preach Churchism and Dissenterism, Calvinism, Arminianism, and 
Popery, to all the world ! Bat the apostles were not sent to " all the 
world " in the Gentile acceptation of the phrase. They were sent to 
all the nations of the then habitable, or civilised , world ; principally, 
and almost exclusively, comprehended in the limits of the Roman 
dominion. Xor were they sent under the idea of converting them 
nationally to the gospel ; but to preach it eig fiaorvptoy for a testimony ; 
that is, for their information, that disciples might be made among 
them all ; so that a people might be taken out of them {e^ eQvojv) for 
the administration of the affairs of God's kingdom 'and empire upon 
earth.'' The apostles left nothing for " successors " to do under the 
commission given to them. They preached the gospel of the kingdom 
to " ever}^ creature " of the Roman nations ; if not in the Gentile sense 
of " every creature," at least in the sense of the phrase as used by the 
Lord Jesus. 

a Isaiah xsxi. 9. ^ Ezek. xxi. 25-27. <= Matt. ssiv. 3, 14. ^ Dan. ix. 26-27. 

e Acts XV. 14. 



196 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

I feel strong upon this point, sustained as I am by the direct 
testimony of scripture ; which is worth all the theories, and all the 
logic of the schools en masse. The apostle, in speaking of the "one 
hope of the calling "^ contained " in the word of the truth of the 
gospel," tells the Colossian believers,^ that " it had come to all tlie 
world " [TraporroQ ev iravri to) Koajjiu)) in the sense of "every creature," 
as appears in another verse° of the same chapter. In this place, he 
says, " The hope of the gospel teas preached to every creature lohich is 
under the heaven.'' This was the result of some thirty years apostolic 
labour ; for the epistle in which he makes the statement is assigned 
to A.D. 62 ; which was about eight years before the desolating abomina- 
tion appeared before the walls of Jerusalem, as " the sign " of the end 
of the age. 

The gospel of the kingdom, so efficiently preached by the apostles, 
was soon after perverted by "men of corrupt minds ; "'' whom Paul, 
who was very severe, but not too much so, upon this class of professors, 
styles, " Seducing spirits, speaking lies in hypocrisy, and having 
their conscience seared as with a hot iron."^ Let the reader consult 
the references below. These characters were the " successors " from 
whom modern apostles, and ambassadors of Christ, have originated. 
AVhen the Hebrew commonwealth was broken up by the Romans, 
they claimed to be successors to the priests and Levites of the law, 
as well as to the apostles. Thus they united a worldly priesthood 
(for all Christ's disciples are kings and priests elected for the purposes 
of the approaching kingdom) with eldership ; and became a distinct 
order unrecognized by the scriptures, by which they are repudiated 
as " reprobate concerning the faith." This order of men, as I have 
alread}^ stated elsewhere, had the presumption to style themselves, 
God's heritage, or " clergy ; " as though He had a delight in them, 
above all other professors ! But with all their praying and preaching, 
and profession, neither they nor their successors, love the Lord ; for 
they do not ohey him : and He has made obedience the test of love, as 
it is written "Love is the fulfilling of the law." They corrupted, and 
perpetuate the perversions of the faith from age to age ; therefore, says 
the scripture, " Let them be accursed when the Lord comes." ^ 

By the ministerial influence of this order of men multitudes 
departed from the faith ; and by their accession to municipal and 
state authority, they were enabled to give political existence to the 
apostasy they had consummated. It is unnecessary to narrate the 
history of their evil deeds from the beginning tothe present time. It. 
would require volumes to do justice to their ignorance, hypocrisy, and 
cr me. As ecclesiastical policemen they have kept the world in order 
for the advantage and behoof of the opjoressors and destroyers of the 
earth ; and have used the people for their own profit under pretence 
of " curing their souls." 

But, while this is undeniably true of the order, lam free to admit, 
that there have been, and no doubt are, many sincere, honest, and 
moral men, who bear the names of "clergyman," and "minister: " — 

« Eph. iv. 4. t Col. i. 5-R. ^ ver. 23. d -> Tim. iii. ]-8 : iv. 3-4 ; Tit. i. 10-14. 
^' 1 Tim. iv. 1-3. / 1 Cor. xvi. 22 ; Gal. i. 8, 9 ; Matt. vii. 21-23. 



UNHAPPy POSITION OF " THE CLERGY." 197 

many, who conscientiously believe their theories to be the true sense of 
scripture ; and who would suffer the loss of all things, and life itself, 
rather than surrender what they believe to be the truth. There have 
been many such ; and may still be, should occasion arise to necessitate 
their manifestation. These are men who are in advance of the systems 
by which they have been created "clergymen," and "ministers." 
Their position is an unhappy one. System has made them ; and they 
conscientiously support and perpetuate the system, having been indoc- 
trinated by their predecessors into the belief that the system is the 
religion of God ! But, I have hope, that if this book fall into the 
hands of this respectable class of professors, it may be instrumental in 
Ojoening their eyes to see the deception practised upon them by the 
traditions of their fathers. 

Sincerity, honesty, piety, and morality, are good qualities without 
which no man can be saved. I admit they have all these. But they 
should remember, that Cornelius was as estimable a man as they ; 
and had the advantage of them in this, that his character was attested 
of. God by the mouth of a special messenger from heaven ; whereas 
they have no attestation beyond what is purely human. Now, piety 
and God-fearing did not save Cornelius ; they only commended him 
to God's remembrance. It was necessary for him to believe words, 
and to be baptised in the name of the Lord, as I have already shown. 
These words were the gospel of the kingdom of God and his Christ. 
This necessity has never been abrogated. It is in full force to this 
day. Clergy and ministers do not believe it. Much of it they sneer 
at as "the rmllenmal hypothesis.'" If they would attain to the king- 
dom of God, they must believe the doctrine concerning it. Martyrdom 
for opinion's sake is no substitute for " the obedience of faith." It is 
self-deception to say, that God is with us to the end of the world, when 
we neither understand, nor believe and obey, the truth. 

Lastly, the clergy and ministers of the age, being utterly ignorant 
of the gospel of the kingdom, are plainly not the persons referred to 
in the commission. The Lord is not ^' with them; " and without his 
co-operation, were they as enlightened and faithful as the apostles 
themselves, they could do nothing."^ They point to what is done 
among the heathen in proof of his being " with them." But, there 
is nothing done there as it ought to be done ; or, as things were done 
when the Lord worked with the apostles. Their missionary societies 
are but so many institutions for the intellectual, moral, and social, 
training of the heathen in the civilisation of European and American 
religionists. They make Protestants and Catholics of the natives ; 
but beyond this they cannot go. They may extend the civilisation of 
Japheth into the tents of Shem, and compel Ham to be their servant ; 
but to beget them in Christ Jesus through the gospel, and so to induct 
them into the heirship of the kingdom of God, is a thing they could 
as soon accomplish as to still the raging of the sea. If by their 
labours they were to make aU the earth like England and America, it 
would still need to be converted to the religion of Christ. 

^ Jolm XV. 5. 



198 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

Ecclesiastics have done all they are able to do in " civilised " 
communities. They are powerless for progress among these ; and 
men of natnr^Uy strong minds are either indifferent to their ministra- 
tions, or have repudiated them altogether. They lack one thing, 
namely, the knowledge of " the truth as it is in Jesus." In default of 
this they occupy the minds of the people with foreign enterprises, 
benevolent institutions, public meetings, platform and pulpit oratory, 
fancy fairs, and all sorts of devices to raise the wind to keep the 
machine in motion. But all will not do. The people begin to flag. 
The masses take no interest in their preaching. Their churches are 
cold, formal, and deathlike. Their " spiritaality "is gone ; and, unless 
the Lord come to raise the dead, both priests and people will be 
beyond the reach of cure. 

Apostolic succession, then, especially through such a channel, is a 
mere figment of the carnal mind, The only succession of which any 
scriptural idea can be formed is, the following in the steps of the 
apoetles' faith ; which no one who understands the word of the king- 
dom, would affirm of the ecclesiastical guides of the people. The 
power and authority of the apostles died with them. Those loho succeed 
to their faith are their successors only in this sense. Their word, 
which is also the Lord's word, dwells in such richly in all wisdom ; 
and where the word of the Lord is found, there, by the belief of it, 
he dwells in the hearts of men. When they work according to this 
word, they and the Lord work together. But this is not pecu- 
liar to a ministerial class ; bat is common to all the Lord's people ; 
for he is no respecter of persons. A successor to the faith of the 
apostles delights to feel that he is a layman ; that he is one of the 
flock ; and of the best of the sheep it contains, because his sole anxiety 
is to know and obey the great shepherd's voice." He is not a wolf, 
nor a dog, rending, and devouring, the flock, and investing himself 
with its wool ; but one, who would be the servant of the least, that he 
may be exalted to an unfading crown of glory, when the good shep- 
herd shall appear to give life to all his sheep for evermore. 

« Heb. xiii. 20 ; John x. 27. 



THE KINGDOM " IN THE PEOPHETS. 199 



CHAPTER II. 

THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO ABRAHAM. HIS FAITH 
A^D WORKS. 

Five points of prophetic testimony. — The general elements of a kingdom constituents 
of the kingdom of Christ. — The j^romise made of God to the fathers, the hope 
of Israel, and the gospel, the same. — Who the fathers are. — Abram originally 
fi-om Babel, and an idolater. — The Lord preaches the gospel to him in 
Mesopotamia. — He believes it, and emigrates westward in consequence. — 
Becomes a wanderer in the land of Canaan, which is promised to him audChi-ist 
for ever.— His faith comited to him for righteousness. — The iDromise of a 
resLirrection to eternal life. — Confirmation of the covenant of promise. — The 
extent of the land defined in the Covenant. — The personal re-appearance of 
Christ necessitated by the nature of things. — The phrases " in thee," " in him," 
and "in thy seed," explained. — The nations God's i^eople in no sense. — 
Abraham, Christ, and the saints, "heirs of the world." — The token of the 
covenant. — The signification of circumcision. — Modern Israel under the curse 
of the law. — Circumcision of the heart. — The Allegory. — The two seeds. — 
Parable of the Seed. — Summary of Abraham's faith. 

It is written in the prophet Micah, that " the Lord shall jndge 
among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off (from Jeru- 
salem) ; " and as the result thereof, " they shall beat their swords into 
ploughshares, and their spears into scythes : nation shall not lift up 
sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But 
they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree ; and 
none shall make them afraid." And "in that day, saith the Lord, 
I will assemble " Israel, " and make them, a strong nation : and 
the Lord shall reign over them on Mount Zion from henceforth, 
even for ever." And " Unto thee, Zion, shall it come, even the 
FIRST dominion ; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jeru- 
salem." « And the Judge, who shall be Ruler in Israel, whose goings 
forth have been from everlasting, " shall stand and feed in the strength 
of Jehovah, in the Majesty of the Name of the Lord his God ; and 
Israel shall abide ; for now shall He be great to the ends of the 
earth. And this man (Christ the Lord) shall be the peace when the 
Assyrian (the Russo-Assyrian) shall come into our (Israel's) land." 
And " Assyria shall be wasted with the sword, and the land of 
Nimrod in the entrances thereof ; thus shall He (the Judge of Israel) 
deliver us from the Assyrian (Gog) when he cometh into our land." 
" And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as 
a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not 
for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men. And the remnant of Jacob 
shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion 
among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the floehs of 
sheep; who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in 
pieces, and none can deliver. Thine hand shall be hfted up upoii 
thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off." " And I 

" Mic. iv. 3-8. 



200 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as 
they have not heard.''"- 

From this passage, which is only a specimen of the general tenor 
of the law and the testimony, we are informed, 

1. That the nations are to be subdued, and that universal peace 
shall prevail in consequence ; 

2. That when this shall occur, the Israelites shall become a strong 
nation ; 

3. That they shall then constitute A kingdom ; 

4. That the Judge of Israel, formerly treated with indignity, shall 
be their King ; 

5. That Jerusalem shall be the metropolis, and Mount Zion the 
throne, of the kingdom. 

Such is the revealed purpose of the Most High. But a consum- 
mation like this requires preparation ; and that, too, a very long one ; 
especially as it is to be developed upon certain moral, as well as 
political, principles. When the time shall come for the kingdom to 
be possessed, it will be said to the heirs of it, " Come ye blessed of 
my Father, inherit the kingdom pi^epared for you from the foundation 
of the world." From this, it appears that the work of preparing the 
kingdom takes from the foundation of the world to the resurrection of 
the dead. All this time the kingdom is preparing ; but when the 
King descends, and rebukes the nations, and wastes the land of Nimrod 
with the sword, and makes Israel a strong nation, it will then be said 
that the kingdom is prepared. 

The reader will probably inquire, what does this work of prepara- 
tion consist in that it should take so long a time ? This is an 
important question, and, in reply, I remark that if physical force only 
were employed in preparing the kingdom, it need not take so long. 
A kingdom may be set up in a few days, and abolished as speedily, 
as we have witnessed in our own time. But it is not so with the 
Kingdom of God. The physical is subordinated to the intellectual 
and moral ; and as men, among whom it is being prepared, are so 
earthly and sensual, the mental progresses much more slowly than the 
physical ; and, therefore, a kingdom founded upon moral principles 
requires longer to prepare, but is more enduring when completed. In 
the following jyages my endeavour will be to set forth an answer to the 
question in detail. 

A kingdom is the dominion of a king. An empire is also the 
dominion of a king, but with this difference ; the kingdom proper, or 
" the first dominion,'' is restricted to a regally constituted territory ; 
while the empire, or secondary dominion, though belonging to the 
same king, extends over other peoples, multitudes, nations, and 
tongues, than those of the royal domain. This is illustrated in the 
case of the British kingdoms and empire. The kingdoms are restricted 
to England and Scotland, which are by constitution regal territories ; 
but the empire is a secondary dominion of the same united crowns, 
extending over Canada, Hindostan, and other j)arts of the globe, with 
all the nations, languages, and people, the^^ contain. 

«Mic. V. 1, 2, 4-9, 15. 



ELEMENTS OF THE KINGDOM. 201 

There are various elements necessar}^ to the coaistitution of a well- 
organised kingdom. In the first place, a kingdom must have a terri- 
tory. This is only saying, in other terms, that something must be 
somewhere. To maintain the opposite would be to contend, that 
something is nowhere. A kingdom is not located in a feeling, or, in 
heart ; though a belief of its future existence, a comprehension of its 
nature, or an attachment to it, may exist there. It mast have a place, 
a locaHty, as well as a name. 

It v^ould be highly absurd to say, that the kingdom of England 
and the throne of Victoria were in Spain ; yet this would be as 
reasonable, as to say, that the kingdom and throne of David are 
beyond the skies ! — an orthodox dogma contained in the fiction, that 
Jesus is now sitting upon the throne of his father David ! What 
conceit after this is too ridiculous for creed-makers and systematisers 
to promulge ! 

In addition to a territory, a kingdom requires subjects, which 
compose the nation over whom there is the king. But, simply to set 
up a man and call him " king " would be unwise. It would be con- 
sonant only with the barbarism of savage tribes. A well-regulated 
inonarchy requires gradation of ranks, and orders of the best men, 
with whom the king may divide his power, and glory, and administer 
the laws of the kingdom. These laws should be in conformity with 
the provisions and spirit of the constitution ; which defines the princi- 
]3les, and creates and combines the ele»ments, of the State. 

Now, it is worthy of remark, that the subjects of a kingdom do not 
possess the kingdom. They are simply the inhabitants of the territory, 
who are defended against external aggression, and protected as civilians 
b}^ the power, and laws, of the State. The possessors of the kingdom 
are the king, and those with whom he is pleased to share his authority. 
This is an important distinction, and must not be forgotten in studying 
"the things of the kingdom of God." The subjects of the kingdom 
and empire, are a totally different class from the heirs, or possessors, 
of the dominion. 

From this brief view, then, of the nature and constitution of a 
kingdom, its elements may be stated as consisting of, 

1. A territory ; 

2. Subjects ; 

3. A king ; 

4. A constitution ; 

5. Laws, civil and ecclesiastical ; 

6. Aristocracy ; 

7. Attributes, or, prerogatives, rights, privileges, &c. 

Now, " the kingdom of God and of his Christ " will consist of all 
these things ; and will be as material an institution — as real and ter- 
restrial a monarchy as those of Great Britain, Belgium, or Spain. 
It is not now an existent reality ; for, though it once existed under a 
constitution, which hath waxed old and vanished away, its elements 
are dissolved from their previous combination, and remain dispersed. 
Their restitution is, however, a matter of promise, attested by two 
immutable things — the promise and the oath of the living God. His 



202 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

kingdom and empire on earth are a great truth, but not an existing 
fact ; they are visible only to the eye of faith, and are required by 
their founder to be received in the " full assurance of hope,^' with 
rejoicing and confidence to the end.* 

In studying the things of the kingdom of God, the foundation 
laid in the beginning must not be forgotten ; for at that epoch its 
preparation was commenced. The system of the world is an 
adaptation to man in his fallen state ; and out of the things thus 
arranged, it is that Christ's imperial dominion is being evolved. By 
the laws of procreation has been provided a population, which, by the 
confusion of tongues, has been distributed into nations, whose 
habitations have been fixed by the controlling power of the Elohim. 
Thus nations have been formed which are destined to flourish in the 
blessedness of the Future Age. Their history records the fiery ordeal 
through which their generations have passed. For the most part, men 
see nothing in it but a strife for territory, and glory, for the advantage 
of their rulers ; but the scriptures reveal the workings of an invisible 
machinery, whose activity is perceived by the believer, in the incidents 
which occasion the conflicts among them. He discerns the leaven, 
hid in the three measures of meal, at work leavening the minds of 
men, and developing the " enmity " between the seeds. And though 
the strife is terrible, he feels no dismay, but rejoices with firm and 
unwavering confidence in the certainty of the triumph of the truth 
and its adherents ; because God has assured him in His word that the 
King He has provided shall crush the sin-power, and make the nations 
lick the dust like a serpent.^ Now this implies their subjugation ; 
and it is to this crisis that all things are at present tending. And 
what then ? Obviously, the transfer of the conquered to the sceptre 
of Jehovah's King, who overcomes them ;'' as it is written, " The 
Gentiles shall wait for his law ;"^ and "He shall reign over 
them/''' The nations, then, -are the subjects of the theocratic empire. 
By the truth and judgments of God brought to bear upon them, 
exciting and controlling thfeir activity, they are being moulded like 
clay in the hands of the potter, for the dominion of the saints in the 
Future Age. / 

The hope of these things, whose seeds were sown in the constitu- 
tion of the world at the beginning, was the hope of the gospel then 
in its most general enunciation. The subjects and territory of the 
empire, and the rulers thereof, were plainly marked out. The earth, 
and the conquM^ seed of the serpent, obedient to the victorious 
seed of the woinan, was the gospel of the kingdom in its most simple 
form. No paprricular portion of the globe, however, was indicated as 
the territory/of a kingdom. The Spirit began with universals ; but, 
as the world became older, the particulars of the promise were un- 
folded to l/lie eye of faith. But never, from the foundation of the 
world to tlie sealing up of the testimony of God, was such a king- 
dom, or dopiinion, promised, as that which is believed in, and glori- 
fied in the "sacred " psalmody of the Gentiles. Earth, and not the 

« Helj. iii. G, 14 : iv. 11 : x. 38, 39. ?'-Mic. vii. 17. « Rev. xvii. 14. 
^ Isaiah xlii. 4. " Rom. xv. 12. 



" THE PROMISE MADE OF GOD UNTO THE FATHERS." 203 

skies, is the region where alone it will appear. I shall show this 
abundantly ; and thereby prove, that they who sing such ditties as 
those of which the following is a specimen, sing what ne'er was, nor 
is, nor e'er shall be : 

" With thee we'll reign, with thee we'll rise, 
And Idngdonis gain beyond the skies ! " 



" According to your faith be it unto you." This is a first principle of 
religion delivered by the Great Teacher himself. It is jast and right 
it should be so. No one can blame God for not bestowing upon them, 
what they do not believe in ; and, consequently, do not want, or seek 
after. This is precisely the position of the present generation of 
religionists in relation to the kingdom of God. They have faith in a 
sort of kingdom which He hath not promised ; and in the one He has 
promised they do not believe. Hence, they believe in a non-entity ; 
and, believing in what is nothing, they will get nothing but confusion 
of face. But, we propose to show them a more excellent way ; and 
in so doing invite their attention to 

"THE PROMISE MADE OF GOD UNTO THE FATHERS." 
" The Hope of Israel." 

There is no one, I suppose, who reads the scriptures but admits 
that Paul was persecuted, being imprisoned, scourged, arraigned, and 
manacled, because he preached the gospel of the kingdom in the name 
of Jesus. This is admitted by all. It matters not, then, in what 
terms he states the cnuse of his trials, it will all amount to this declara- 
tion, namely, " For the gospel I am called in question, and am judged, 
and bound with this chain." 

But, we will let the apostle state his case in his own words. Wncn 
he stood before Ananias, the high priest, and the council of the Jews, 
he cried out, " On account of the hope, and resurrection of dead persons 
(pEKpiov) I am called in question." "^ But, it may be asked here, " Con- 
cerning what hope was the question between Paul and his persecutors 
about ? " He tells us in his defence before Agrippa ; "I stand and 
am judged," says he, " for the hope of the promise made of God unto 
our fathers ; unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving 
God day and night, hope to come. For ivhich hope's sake, king 
Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews."^ Now, from this statement, it 
appears, 

1. That God had made a certain promise to the fathers of Israel ; 

2. That this promise became the hope of the nation, and was 
therefore a national question ; 

3. That this promise had been the hope of the twelve tribes in 
all their generations ; was the ground of their worship ; and that they 
hoped to attain to it by rising from the dead. 

But we have a still plainer avowal, if possible, of the identity of 
this national hope with the hope for which the apostle suffered so 
much. The Lord Jesus had appeared to him after his arraignment 

« Acts xxiii. 6. ^ Acts xxvi. 6-7. 



204 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

before Ananias, and said to him, "Be of good cheer, Paul ; for as 
thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also 
at Rome." When he arrived at this city, he called the chief of the 
Jews together, and told them that he had nothing to accuse his nation 
of ; but had sent for them to inform them how matters really stood. 
He then told them how it was they found him in the custody of a 
Roman soldier, with fetters upon his person : "On account of the 
HOPE OF ISRAEL," said he, " am I bound with this chain."" This is 
conclusive. The hope of the promise made to the fathers, was, and, 
indeed, is to this day, the Hope of Israel ; and for preaching this 
hope, and inviting the Gentiles to a participation in it without other 
circumcision than that of the heart, he was denounced as a pestilent 
fellow, and unfit to live.^' 

But what was the hope of Israel about ? The answer to this 
question is easy. Having made the chief of the Jews at Rome 
acquainted with the cause of his appeal to Caesar, they remarked to 
him, that they should like to hear of him what he thought upon the 
question of the national hope, as so strenuously contended for by the 
sect of the Nazarenes. As it was not, however, convenient then, they 
appointed a future day when they would meet him, and hear what he 
had to say upon the subject. Accordingly, at the time appointed they 
came together at Paul's lodging, and he proceeded to lay before them 
his thoughts upon the subject of Israel's hope. But I cannot do better 
than to state what he did in the words of Luke ; who says that, " He 
expounded and testified to them the Kingdom of God, persuading them 
concerning Jesus, hoth out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets, 
from morning till evening."*' 

Now who can be so dim of vision as not to perceive, that the 
subject-matter of the hope of Israel is the Kingdom of God ? And 
observe, that in giving his thoughts of the national hope, the apostle's 
persuasions turned upon things concerning Jesus. The Kingdom of 
God and Jesus were the subjects of Paul's testimony, when he 
preached " the hope of Israel," or " the hope of the promise made of 
God unto the fathers." Having begun his testimony with the chiefs 
of the Jews, some of whom received it, he continued to publish it for 
two years in his own hired house to all that visited him, ''preaching 
the Kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the 
Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence."*^ In this way he bore witness 
for Jesus in Rome, as he had done before in Jerusalem. 

But, one might say, if the hope the apostle preached, and the hope 
of the twelve tribes, were the same hojoe, why was he persecuted by 
the Jews ? The answer is, because Paul and the rest of the apostles, 
testified that Jesus whom they had crucified was the king whom God 
had anointed to be the Judge of Israel in His Kingdom, of which they 
were the natural born citizens. They had been constituted " a 
kingdom of priests, and a holy nation," by the covenant of Sinai ; 
and had on that occasion accepted Jehovah as their king. They were 
therefore the kingdom of God. In after ages, they had demanded a 

« Acts xxviii. 20. ^ Acts xxiv. 5-6 : xxii. 21-22. " Acts xxviii. 23. 
d Acts xxviii. 30-31. 



"the GOSPEL," "the PROMISE," ANT) " THE HOPE OF ISRAEL." 205 

king who iniglit go in and out before them. He gave them David ; 
and promised to raise up from among his descendants, sleeping in the 
tomb, a king, who should be immortal, and reign over them for ever, 
according to the provisions of a new constitution. Now, the apostles 
testified tliat God had raised up Jesus from among the dead for this 
very purpose ; and had sent them to the Jews first, to inform them 
that if they desired to reign as princes over Israel and the nations 
with his king, it was not enoagh for them to be natui-al born 
descendants of Abraham ; b ut that they must acknowledge Jesus as 
King of Israel, and walk in the steps of Abraham's faith. They 
testified furthermore, that, if they would not acknowledge him as their 
king, seeing that the kingdom and empire of God would require 
kings and priests to administer its affairs, they would turn to the 
Gentiles, and invite them to accept the honour and glory of the king- 
dom, upon terms of perfect equality with Israel ; for so the Lord had 
commanded them to do. 

This mortified the Jews exceedingly. They despised Jesus be- 
cause of his poverty and ignominious death. A suffering and crucified 
king was a reproach to the nation in their esteem ; and to be put on 
a level with Gentiles, whom they regarded as " dogs,'' filled them 
with indignation and madness against the preachers of such pestilent 
heresies. But it was the apostolic mission to withstand their fury 
with '' the testimony of God;'' and to establish their preaching by 
what is written in the law of Moses and the prophets, and by what 
they had seen and heard, and which was attested by the power of 
God exhibited in the miracles they performed. 

We have, then, arrived at a great truth, namely, that the " one 
hope of the gospel " preached by the apostles to the Jew first, and 
afterwards to the Greek, was ''the hope of Israel;" that the subject 
of it was the kingdom of God and Shiloh ; and that these were the 
matter of the promise made to the fathers. It remains for us now to 
look into this promise so that we may come to understand it well ; 
for its provisions are the things of the kingdom ; and to be ignorant 
of these is to be without understanding, and therefore faithless, of the 
gospel of Christ. 

The apostle Paul, who will be our interpreter, tells us that the 
promise, which is the subject of the ''one hope," was made to "the 
fathers." This is a phrase which signifies sometimes the predecessors 
of the generation of the apostle's time, who were contemporary 
with the prophets f and at others the fathers Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob.^ It is in the latter sense the apostle uses the phrase in con- 
nection with " the promises ; " for speaking of Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, he says, " These all died in faith not having received the 
'promises;" that is, the things contained in the promise : and after 
adding " a cloud of witnesses," who lived in after ages, and who 
illustrated their faith in the promise made to the fathers, he concludes 
by saying, " These all, having received a good report through faith, 
received not the promise : God having provided some better thing for 
us, that they without us should not be made perfect,"'' by a resurrection 

« Heb. i. 1. ^ Exod. iv. 5. " Heb. xi. 13, 39, 40. 



206 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

from the dead to inherit the kingdom. They must rise from the dust 
before they can receive the promise. They are imperfect now, being 
in ruins. But when they are re-fashioned by the Spirit of God, and 
spring forth for glorious, incorruptible, and powerful men, " equal 
to the Elohim," they will have been " made perfect,'' and fit for the 
kingdom of God. But they are not to be thas perfected until all the 
believers of the promise are brought in ; for all the faithful of all 
previous ages are to be j^erfected together. 

The study of the promise unconnected with the study of the 
fathers is impossible. Those who are ignorant of the biographies of 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob must be ignorant of the gospel ; for these 
patriarchs were the de]30sitories of the promises," which constitute the 
gospel-hope ; and of them, Abraham is especially designated as him 
that liath the promises^ — tov e^ovra rag ETra-yyeXiag. It is for this 
reason that a man must become, of Abraham's seed by adoption 
through Jesus Christ. Unless a son of Abraham by a like faith and 
disposition with him, neither Jew nor Gentile can share in Abraham's 
estate. It is only Abraham's spiritual family that can divide with him 
the promises he holds. God has made him the spiritual father of 
mankind ; and the Lord Jesus, the elder brother of the family. If, 
therefore, a man become a brother of Jesas, he at the same time 
becomes a son of Abraham ; for Jesus is Abraham's seed, and was 
in the loins of Isaac, when Abraham offered his only son, and received 
him from the dead again, in a figure. If the reader understand this 
matter, he will fully comprehend the meaning of the apostle's saying, 
that believers "are all the children cf God (being Abraham's) by 
faith in Christ Jesus. For as many as have been baptized into Christ 
have put on Christ. And if Christ's, then Abraham's seed, and heirs 
according to the promise."" 

After what has been advanced, no more, I think, need be said 
upon the importance of the subject before us. I shall, therefore, 
proceed now to a more particular illustration of the glad tidings of 
the kingdom by an exposition of 

THE PROMISE MADE TO xiBRAHAM. 

The descendants of Noah were beginning to tread in the footsteps 
of the antediluvians. They became ambitious of making " a name " 
for themselves, irrespective of the name of the Lord. This their way 
was their folly ; yet their posterity approved their endeavour. Idolatry 
was beginning to prevail ; and they proceeded to build a city, and a 
tower, whose top should reach to heaven, in honour of their god. But 
tlie Lord came down and put a stop to their enterprise, by confounding 
tlieir language, and scattering them abroad over the earth. 

Noah had lived 292 years after the flood, when three sons were 
born to Terah, a descendant of Shem, Terah being 70 years old. 
Shem was a worshipper of the true God, whom Noah styled, " the 
Lord God of Shem." '^ Terah, however, seems to have departed 
from the simplicity of the truth ; and was, probably, engaged in the 

a Ileb. xi. 17. 1' Heb. vii. 6. c Gal. iii. 26-29. ^ Qen. ix. 26. 



"get thee out of thy country ! " 207 

mad scheme of making " a name " for the sons of men in the land of 
Shinar. But that undertaking being interrupted, it is probable he 
migrated from Babel, the name of the city they were building, in a 
northerly direction. Be this as it may, we find him in Chaldea at a 
place called Ur.'' At this place, eastward of " the great river 
Euphrates,'' Abram, Nahor, and Haran, were born to Terah. They 
lived there many years, serving the gods of Shinar. The idolatry of 
Terah's family appears from the testimony of God Himself, who said 
to Israel, " Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood (the 
Euphrates) in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the 
father of Nachor : and they served other gods.'' When Joshua reported 
this to the, people, he admonished them, saying, " Put away the gods 
which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt, 
and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord, 
choose you this day whom ye will serve ; whether the gods which 
your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the 
gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell : but as for me and my 
house we will serve the Lord. And the people said unto Joshua, The 
Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey."^ 

While Terah's family dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees, the Lord 
appeared to them, and said to Abram, " Get thee out of thy country, 
and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show 
thee."'^ This command caused them to remove from Ur, and to 
journey towards the land of Canaan ; on their way to which, they 
arrived at Haran, and dwelt there."^ Thus Terah, Abram, Sarai, 
and Lot, obeyed the voice of the Lord, and separated themselves 
from the idolaters of the Chaldean district of Mesopotamia. They 
remained in Haran till the Lord appeared again to Abram. On this 
occasion, the Lord came to show him the land he was to go to ; but 
did not immediately name it. He appears only to have told him to 
travel westward until He met him again ; for it is vnritten that he went 
in that direction, " not knowing whither he went." 

At this interview in Haran, the Lord said to Abram, "J loillmake 
of thee A GREAT NATION, and I will bless thee and make thy name 
great ; and thou shalt be a blessing : and I will bless them that bless 
thee, and curse him that carseth thee : and in thee shall all the 
families of the earth he hlessed."^ Alluding to this x^romise, the 
apostle says, that in making it, " the gospel was preached to Abraham " 
— the glad tidings of blessedness to the nations, when Abraham and 
his descendants should be great, and renowned throughout the 
earth. Abraham believed this gospel promisorily announced to him 
by the Lord God. Nor was his faith inoperative. It was a living, 
moving faith — a faith through which he obtained a good report. By 
the influence of that faith, which embraces the things hoped for, it 
is testified that Abraham " when he was called to go -out into a 
country which he should after receive for an inheritance, oheyed ; 
and he went out, not knowing whither he went. For he looked 
for the city having foundations, whose architect and builder is 

« Gen. si. 28. ^ Josh. xxiv. 2, 14, 15, 2-i. <■ GTeii. xv. 7 ; Acts vii. 2, 3. 
^ Gen. xi. 31. '^ Gen. xii. 2, 3. 



208 THE THINGS OF THE KIXGDOM OF GOD. 

God."^ He turned his back on Babel, and with Sarai and 
liis nephew, Lot, and all his substance, he left his father's house, 
crossed the Euphrates and the Jordan, and entered the land of 
Canaan, still travelling onward until he arrived at Sichem, in the 
plain of Moreh. Having come thus far into the country, the Lord 
appeared again to Abram to let him know that he was in the land 
He intended to show him ; and added this remarkable promise, saying, 
'' Unto thy Seed loill I give this land^^' 

Let us pause here in the biography of Abram, and consider this 
promise. Here was a country, lying between the Euphrates and the 
Mediterranean, in which were Abram and all his house, with his flocks 
and herds, and which was in the actual possession of warlike tribes, 
living in cities walled up to heaven ; concerning this country, the 
Lord, to whom heaven and earth belong, said to Abram, I will give 
it to thy Seed, when as yet he had no child. But it is particularly 
interesting to know who is intended by Abram's Seed in this promise. 
Is it the " great nation " spoken of in the former promise ? or is it 
some particular personage to whom the Land of Canaan is here 
promised as an inheritance? I shall offer no opinion upon the 
subject, but let the apostle to the Gentiles answer the question. In 
writing to the disciples in Galatia about the inheritance, he says, 
" The promises were made to Abraham and to his Seed. God saith 
notj And to seeds, as of many persons ; but as of one person, as it 
is written. And unto thy Seed, which is Christ.''" The apostle here 
tells us that the Land of Canaan was promised to the Christ, when 
God said to Abram, " Unto thy Seed will I give this land." Let the 
reader, then, bear this in mind as one of the first principles of the 
gospel of the kingdom. Deny this, and there is an end to all under- 
standing of the truth. 

Having built an altar at Sichem to commemorate the Lord's 
promise concerning his Seed's inheritance, and sojourned there a 
while, he removed to a mountain between Bethel and Hai, where he 
built another altar, and called upon the Name of the Lord. After 
this he journeyed, going on still toward the South. 

Having been driven into Egypt by famine in the Land of Canaan, 
he sojourned there for a time, and acquired much wealth. After it had 
subsided, he left Egypt and returned to the station between Bethel 
and Hai, where he called on the Name of the Lord. Soon after this, 
Lot separated from Abram, and went and dwelt among the cities of 
the plain, now submerged under the Dead Sea. After this separation, 
the Lord appeared to him again, and said, " Lift up now thine 
eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward, and. south- 
ward, and eastward, and westward : for all the land which thou seest, 
to thee will I give it, and to thy Seed for ever. And I will make thy 
seed (plural here) as the dust of the earth ; so that if a man can 
number the dust of the earth, then shall th}^ seed also be numbered. 
Arise, walk through the land in the length of it, and in the breadth 
of it : for I will give it unto thee.'''^ 

« Heb. si. 8, 10. «' Gen. xii. 7. ^ Qal. iii. 16. ^ Gen. xiii. 14-17. 



ABIUm's faith " COUNTED TO HIM FOR EIGHTEOUSNESS." 209 

This was an ampliJGLcatioii of the promise given at Haran and 
Sicliem. At the former place, the promise of blessing which was to 
come upon him and the nations ; and in which his seed in the sense of 
a multitude was to become great — was given in general terms ; at the 
latter place, the Christ was promised as descending from him to inherit 
the Land of Canaan ; but in these promises, nothing was said about 
what Abram was to have, nor as to how long the Christ was to possess 
the country. In the promise, however, amplified near Bethel, these 
desiderata were supplied. Abram was informed that he should inherit 
the country as well as Christ ; and that they should both possess 
it ^^ for ever."" Having received this assurance, he removed his tent 
from Bethel, and went and pitched it near Hebron in the plain of 
Mamre, and builded there an altar to the Lord. 

When Abram had resided nearly ten years in the Land of Canaan, 
the whole country was in arms east of the Jordan, and to the north 
and south of Abram's encampment. A rebellion had broken out 
against Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, who appears to have been the 
principal xDotentate of the time. During the war, Sodom was attacked 
and taken, and Lot, and all his goods, carried away with the spoil of 
the city, for he dwelt there. Abram having heard of this, hastily 
collected a company of three hundred and eighteen retainers, and 
started in pursuit of the spoilers, whom he overtook and put to the 
rout as far as Hobah, on the west of Damascus. He recovered all 
the spoil, and returned south, considerably disturbed in mind, doubt- 
less, on account of the danger of the times. 

At this crisis, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, 
and comforted him with the assurance, saying, " Fear not, Abram, 
I am thy shield, and thine exceeding great reward J'^ Abram was 
now eighty-five years old, and he had no child. How, then, could the 
promise made of God at Haran, and repeated at Sichem and Bethel, 
he fulfilled, seeing that he was childless ? He was even now an old 
man, and had concluded to make Eliezer of Damascus his heir ; how 
then could the great, the exceeding great, reward be realized by him ? 
Prompted by these considerations, but in no wise distrusting God, 
Abram said, " Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go child- 
less, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus ? 
Behold, to me thou hast given no seed ; and, lo, one born in my house 
is my heir." »But, " the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 
This (Eliezer) shall not be thine heir ; but he that shall come forth 
out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.' " The Lord's messenger, 
who brought this word to Abram, then led him forth from his tent, 
and directed his attention to the heavens, saying, " Count the stars if 
thou art able to number them : and he said unto him, So shall thy 
seed be." This was a great draft upon the faith of an old man of 
upwards of fourscore with a wife of seventy-five years of age. But, 
it is testified of him, that " against hope he believed in hope, that he 
might become the father of many nations, according to that which 
was spoken, saying. So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in 
faith, he considered not his own body now as good as dead (he being 
about a hundred years old), neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb ; 



210 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

he staggered not at the promise of God through unbeHef ; but was 
strong in faith, giving glory to God ; and being fully persuaded that, 
what he had promised, he was also able to perform"* Such was 
the manner of Abram's faith ; his mode of thinking upon the things 
reported to him in the word of the Lord ; and his disposition in 
relation to them. So pleased was God with him, that "he counted 
it to him for righteousness.^^ 

Abram, having first sought the kingdom of God in leaving his 
father's house to " seek the city, whose architect and builder is God," 
had now become the subject of the righteousness of God by faith ; so 
that the Lord was now prepared to add all other things to him. ^ He 
reminded him of the purpose for which He had brought him into the 
Land of Canaan, saying, " I, the Lord, brought thee out of Ur of 
the Chaldees to give thee this land to inherit it.'' Abram had been 
in the country ten years. He had become well acquainted with the land, 
and he perceived that it was a noble and desirable inheritance. 
When, therefore, the angel referred to the Lord's promise, Abram 
requested a sign, saying, " Lord God, whey^ehy shall I know that I shall 
possess it ? " 

In reply to this, he was commanded to take " a heifer of three 
years old^ and a ram of three years old, and a turtle dove, and a 
young pigeon." Having killed them, " he divided them in the midst, 
and laid each piece one against another, but the birds divided he 
not." This sacrifice was representative of the qualities of the Christ, 
concerning whom confirmation was about to be made, attestative of 
Abram's and his Seed's possession of the land in the fulness of the 
times afterwards to be arranged. From the time of the sacrifice until 
the going down of the sun, Abram was engaged in watching the 
carcases, so as to keep off the birds of prey. It is probable that the 
sacrifice was exposed about three hours ; at all events, " when even 
was come," " and the sun was going down, Abram fell into a state of 
figurative death, by a deep sleep, and horror of great darkness coming 
over him. 

This is a very remarkable feature in the case before us. Abram 
had built altars, and had called upon the name of the Lord before ; 
but there were no sach attendant circumstances as these. Here, 
however, he stands watching the exposed sacrificial victims until even ; 
and then is laid powerless in the similitude of death, and in the 
intense darkness of the grave. While he was in* this state, the 
Lord revealed to Abram the fortunes of his descendants in the 
ensuing four hundred years ; the judgment of the nation that should 
oppress them ; their subsequent exodus from bondage with great 
wealth ; his own peaceful death in a good old age ; and the return of 
his descendants into the Land of Canaan again. The following are 
the words of the testimony ; " Know of a surety that thy seed shall 
be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them ; 
and they shall afflict them foar hundred years ; and also that nation 
whom they shall serve, will I judge : and afterward shall they come 
out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace ; 

« Rom. iv. 18-21. ^ Matt. vi. 33. <^ Matt, xxvii. 4G ; Mark xv. 42. 



TO BE " BURIED," BUT TO LIVE " FOE EVER," NECESSITATING RESURRECTION. 211 

thou shalt he huried in a good old age. But in the fourtli generation 
they shaU come hither again : for the iniquity of the Amorites is not 
yet faU." 

I suppose the reader need hardly be informed that aU this was 
literally accomplished. Jacob and his family, consisting of seventy 
persons, migrated into Egypt two hundred and five years after the 
revelation was made to Ahrarri: When a king arose in Egypt who 
knew not Joseph, the saviour of the country under God, the Israelites 
were sorely oppressed till the end of four hundred years from Ahram's 
deep sleep. After this four hundred years had expired, even thirty 
years after, God having judged the Egyptians, they left the country 
with great substance ; and in the fourth generation re-entered the 
Land of Canaan, as God had said. The iniquity of the Amorites 
was then full ; and Israel, under Joshua, became the executioners of 
divine vengeance upon them. 

But God had said to Abram at Bethel, I will give thee the Land 
of Canaan for ever ; and in the answer to this question, " Whereby 
shall I know that I shall inherit it ? " here tells him that he should 
die, and be buried in a good old age ! Now the promise to Abram 
rests upon the veracity of God. If we attempt to interpret it by the 
history of the past, we are brought to the conclusion that the promise 
to Abram has failed. Stephen alludes to this apparent failure of the 
promise to Abram in his speech before the Sanhedrim in these words : 
" God said to him. Come into the land which I shall show thee. 
Then came he into this land in which ye dwell. And he gave him 
none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on : yet he 
promised that he woidd give it to him for a possession, and to his seed 
(tm aTrepfxari, in the singular, to one person called the seed) after him, 
when as yet he had no child."" 

What shall we say then ? Shall we dare to say that God hath 
lied to Abram, or that He meant something else than what He 
promised ? Far be it from the writer or the reader to insult God 
by any such insinuation ; but rather let us say with the apostle in 
reference to this particular incident, that " God cannot lie ;" that 
in promising to Abram an everlasting possession of the Land of 
Canaan ; and, nevertheless, afterwards declaring that he should die 
and be buried, and his posterity be oppressed for four hundred 
years — " He promised " to him a resurrection to " eternal life " before 
the arrangement of the times {irpo y^povojv anovnov).^ If Abram were 
sentenced to die, how could the promise of God concerning the land 
be fulfilled, unless he were raised from the dead ? And as he is to 
possess it for ever, when he is raised, he raust be also made incor- 
ruptible and immortal to enable him to possess it everlastingly. The 
promise of eternal life, then, consists in promising a mortal man 
and his son possession of a terrestrial country for ever ; and this 
promise to the two becomes a promise to all who beheve it, and are 
constituted one in them. 

Abram und erstood this, and so do all who become Abraham's seed 
through Jesus as the Christ, concerning whom the promise was 

« Acts vii. 5. t Tit. i. 2. 



212 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

made. The apostle says lie saw the promises in their fulfilment 
afar off, but was persuaded of them, and embraced them, and con- 
fessed that he was a stranger and pilgrim on the Land. And, in 
saying such things, he plainly declared that he was seeking a country. 
And truly, if he had been mindful of the Mesopotamian Chaldea 
from whence he emigrated, he might have returned if he had pleased. 
But no ; he desired a better country than that beyond the Euphrates 
— that is, the Land of Canaan under a heavenly constitution : where- 
fore God is not ashamed to be called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, and the God of all whose faith is like theirs in word and spirit : 
for He hath prepared for them a city."" 

This manner of teaching the doctrine of a resurrection — namely, 
hy promising, or declaring, something that necessitates it — is not 
peculiar to the case before us. There are other instances ; one, 
however, wiU be sufficient at present. I refer to the dispute between 
Jesus and the Sadducees. The latter, who admitted as authority 
only the writings of Moses, denied the resurrection of the dead. In 
proving it, therefore, to their conviction, it was necessary to demon- 
strate it from his testimony. This Jesus undertook to do. He first 
stated the proposition, saying, Moses has shown that the dead are 
raised. He then directed their attention to the place where Moses 
teaches this resurrection.^ It is there written, " I, the Lord, am the 
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ; " in 
recording this, Moses teaches the resurrection of Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob. "But," says one, "I see nothing said about resurrection 
there." Nor did the Sadducees. " No," continues the objector, 
" nor about the dead either ; for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not 
dead, but alive in heaven, where Christ, and Lazarus, and the thief 
are. They are all living ; and therefore God is their God." This 
is very good Platonism, but very bad logic, and egregious nonsense. 
When Jesus quoted the passage, it was to prove that " the dead 
are raised." The question therefore is. How does this testimony of 
Moses prove it ? In this way — Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are dead ; 
but " God is not the God of the dead," yet He is called " their God :" 
therefore, in order to be their God, they must be made alive, " for 
God is the God of the living : " hence, to style Him " God of 
Abraham " teaches the resurrection by implication ; "for all live to 
him " in the age to come." But why call Him the God of these fathers 
now ? By anticipation ; for, says the apostle, " God, who makes alive 
the dead, stj'les the not heing (ra fir} ovra) as being " (w? ovraY — that 
is, God's promise is so certain to be fulfilled, that He speaks of what 
is to he as though it were past. He has promised to raise Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob, who, while dead, have no being ; and as He cannot 
lie, their restoration to being is inevitable. God therefore speaks of 
them as though they had already been raised from the dead, and 
" is not ashamed to be called their God." God is not the God of 
dead men who are not to rise again. He is the God only of those 
who become His children by being the children of the resurrection, 
and who can die no more, because they are equal to the angels.^ Such, 

« Heb. xi. 8-16. ^ Exod. iii. 6. « Luke xs. 27-38. ^ Rom. iv. 17. « Luke xx. 36. 



THE JUDAISING APOSTACY. 21S 

then, is the way in which the doctrine of the resurrection is taught 
by the Lord God in Moses and the prophets ; plainly, indeed, but in 
such a manner as to require the exercise of the reasoning faculties 
of men. 

But to return to Hebron. Eternal life having been promised ta 
Abram and Christ by constituting them heirs of the land of Canaan 
for ever ; the Lord proceeded to grant Abram a sign whereby he 
might know assuredly that he and his seed should inherit it. The 
sun having gone down entirely, which was figurative of the setting of 
" the Sun of Righteousness " below the horizon of life, Abram 
beheld " a smoking furnace, and a flame of fire pass between the 
pieces." This was a sign which could not be mistaken. The animals 
he had slain, and watched, and defended so long from the birds of 
prey, were consumed by fire from heaven. By this he knew, and 
was assured, that he and his seed, the Christ, should inherit the land 
for ever. But this was not all. On the same day, the Lord converted 
his promise made at Sichem, and repeated near Bethel, into a covenant 
with Abram, as Moses testifies, saying, " In the same day the Lord 
made a covenant^ with Abraham, saying. Unto thy Seed have I given 
this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river 
Euphrates : " inhabited by " the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the 
Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaim, 
and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girghashites, and 
the Jebusites."'' 

In commenting upon these things, the apostle saith, " The covenant 
previously confirmed by God, the law which came into existence 
(yeyoviog) four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it 
should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance (the 
land of Canaan and its attributes) be of the law, it is no more of pro- 
mise : but God gave it to Abraham by promise."^ To understand this 
we must know, that a question agitated the congregations of Galatia, 
namely, that it ivas necessary for the disciples from among the Gentiles 

« Gen. XV. 21. ^ Gal. iii. 17, 18. 

■'=•■ Through the next four or five pages to the end of this section, this term 
covenant is retained, to the exclusion of "'will " and "testament," which appeared 
in the last edition. The exposition is thereby rendered more consistent in its parts. 
There is a lack of true analogy between " the last will and testament " of a mortal 
man, and the " everlasting covenant " of the ever-living God. How the Authorised 
Version came to use both the terms "testament" and "covenant" in Heb. vii., 
viii., ix. : the following note from the Oxford Helps to the Study of the Bible 
incidentally explains. — " Paul in a notable passage calls the books of Moses, if not 
the whole of the Hebrew Canon, ' the old covenant ' (' at the reading of the old 
covenant ' — 2 Cor. iii. 14, R.V.). In the same context he describes himself and his 
fellow-labourers as ' Ministers of a New Covenant ' (2 Cor. iii. 6). These terms 
7/ TraXaia hadriKri the Old Covenant, and // Kaivi) ^ladrjicr] the New Covenant, were 
employed at the close of the second century by ecclesiastical writers to denote the 
Jewish and Christian scriptures respectively. The Latin rendering of ^ladrjKr) 
fluctuated at first between instrumentum and testamentum, but testamentum pre- 
vailed. Hence in the languages of the West, the two collections of writings which 
make up the Bible came to be called ' the Old Testament ' and * the New Testa- 
ment.' But the original idea of a Covenant must never he lost sight of.^' 



214 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

to he circumcised, and to 'keep the law of Moses as loell as to helieve the 
gospel and he haptised, or they could have no part in the inheritance 
covenanted to Abraham and Christ. 

The apostle styles this judaizing, and preaching" another gospel." 
It was the beginning of that awful apostasy, the fruit of which we 
behold in the ecclesiastical system of our day. He contended strenu- 
ously against this perversion of the truth in all places. The judaizers 
argued that a right to Canaan when made a heavenly country under 
Christ, was derived from the law of Moses ; the apostle denied this, 
and maintained that the law could give no title to it. That it could 
only be obtained ^'through the righteousness of the faith'/' "for the 
promise that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, 
or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of 
faith. For if they who are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, 
and the promise is made of none effect : because the law worketh 
wrath. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace ; to the end 
that the promise might be sure to all the seed ; not to that (portion 
of the seed) only which is of the law, but to that also which is 
of the faith oE Abraham ; who is the father of us all," both Jews 
and Gentiles, " before God whose jDromises he believed ; " as it is 
written, " a father of many nations have I constituted thee."^ The 
judaizers claimed a right to the inheritance because they bore the seal 
of the covenant, marked in their flesh by circumcision ; the apostle, 
because he believed the same things that Abraham did, and was the 
subject of God's righteoasness through the faith of Jesus Christ, 
without any title derived from the law of Moses. 

Seeing that he threw the law out of the question altogether, he 
anticipates the objection, viz., if this be so, wherefore, then, serveth 
the law? Of what use is it? To this he replies, "It was added 
because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to lohom the promise 
was made.'' It was " a schoolmaster " until Christ ; but when " the 
things of the name of Jesus Christ " were manifested for faith ; or, as 
he expresses it, "after that faith is come," Israel is "no longer imder 
a schoolmaster. For ye are all," both Jews and Gentiles, " the children 
of God in Christ Jesus through the faith."^ 

The apostle lays great stress upon the covenant of promise being 
prior both to circumcision and the law of Moses ; consequently Abram 
could not derive his title to Canaan and the world, from either of 
them ; for the promise was given before he became the subject of the 
righteousness which is by faith of it ; and he was constituted righteous 
before the promise was made a covenant and confirmed ; and this 
confirmation was fourteen years before the institution of circumcision, 
and 430 years before the promulgation of the Law of Moses. " Faith," 
says the apostle, "was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness when he 
was in uncircumcision ; " and then it was, he was constituted the 
father of manj'' nations, and Heir of the World. 

The promise, before it became a confirmed covenant with Abram, 
indicated the country he is to inherit ; but it did not point out its 
territorial frontiers. This deficiency was supplied at the confirmation. 

a Rom. iv. 13, 14, 16, 17. ^ Gal. iii. 19-29. 



BOUNDAIUES OF THE LAND. 215 

It was to extend from the Euphrates to the Nile, compreliending a 
tract of country of considerable extent, and inhabited by the nations 
enumerated in " The Covenant ^ Abram, therefore, could be at no loss 
to know in what direction, or to what limits, his future country was to 
extend ; for he had travelled it all over in its entire length and breadth. 
Now, if a map of the territorial area indicated in the covenant be 
examined, it will be seen that the broadest extent is ''from sea to sea " 
as it is expressed in scripture ;" that is, from the Mediterranean to the 
Persian Gulf ; and its greatest length, " from the rivers to the ends of 
the land;'' or, from the Euphrates at its junction with the gulf, 
northward ; and from the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, to the entrance 
into Hamath. 

But, the frontiers of the territory were afterwards more particularly 
marked out at the time of the captivity in Babylon. The twelve 
tribes were then all in exile from the land, and it was once more 
wholly possessed by the Gentiles, as it is now. They were powerless 
and prostrate under the heel of the oppressor ; and without hope of 
recovering the country by their own efforts. At this crisis, the Lord 
revealed to them the extent to which in after times they should re- 
230ssess their country. " This," said he, " shall be the border, whereby 
ye shall inherit the land according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 
And this shall be the border of the land toward the north side, from 
the great sea (Mediterranean), the way of Hethlon, as men go to 
Zedad ; Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of 
Damascus, and the border of Hamath ; Hazarhatticon, which is by 
the coast of Hauran. And the border from the sea s»hall be Hazar- 
enan, the border of Damascus, and the north northward, and the 
border of Hamath. This is the north side of the land. And the 
east side ye shall measure from Hauran, and from Damascus, and 
from Gilead, and from the land of Israel by Jordan, from the border 
unto the East Sea." And this is the east side running along the 
Euphrates. And the south side southward from Tamar to the waters 
of strife in Kadesh, to the river toward the Great Sea.^ This is the 
south side toward Teman. The west side also shall be the Great Sea 
from the (west end of the south) border, till a man come over against 
Hamath. This is the west side. So shall ye divide this land unto 
you according to the tribes of Israel."'' 

Now, let it never be forgotten in the investigation of " the things 
o£ the kingdom of God," that the Israelites have never possessed the 
country as defined in this survey since it was revealed to them through 
the prophet. The twelve tribes have not even occupied the land 
together ; and those of them that have dwelt there after the return 
from Babylon to the overthrow by the Romans, held but a very 
small portion of it, while the Gentile kingdoms lorded it over all the 
rest. Now, either God is a liar, as some people make Him out to be 
who deny the restoration of the twelve tribes ; or, the time He refers 
to in the promise of the land according to these boundaries, is not 
arrived. This is the only conclusion a believer in the gospel of the 
kingdom can come to. All theories opposed to this are mere subli- 

« Psalm Ixxii. 8 ; Zech. ix. 10. ^ Ezek. xlvii. 19 : xlviii. 28. <= Ezek. xlvii. 13-21. 



216 THE THIKGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

mated infidelity. If Israel be not restored then tlie promise to 
Abraham will have failed. But Abraham's seed are tinder no appre- 
hension of this kind. They believe in God, who has sworn by 
Himself, that what He has promised He is able, willing, and deter- 
mined, to perform. 

Here, then, is a noble domain, lying between Assyria, Persia, 
Arabia, the Eed Sea, Egypt, and the Mediterranean ; capable, when 
peopled b}^ an industrions, enlightened, and well and strongly governed, 
nation, of commanding the commerce and sovereignty of Asia, and the 
wealth of Europe and America. Such is the land, containing, accord- 
ing to the survey of the British Government, 300,000 square miles, 
concerning which God said to Abram, " To thee will I give it and 
unto thy seed for ever." 

But, the apostle says, that the covenant, confirmed 430 years 
before the law was promulged, was " concerning Christ " especially. 
It was the Father's Covenant, of which Christ was the Mediator. This 
being the case, his death was necessitated ; for so long as he was alive 
the covenant had no force. Neither Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, nor him- 
self, could inherit the land for ever, until the covenant was ratified by 
his death. Hence, his was " the blood of the New Covenant, which 
was shed for many ; " that they which are called might receive 
the remission of sins, and obtain the promise of the inheritance for 
ever.'* The covenant of promise, then, was typically confirmed 430 
years before the law ; and finally dedicated by the death of the 
mediator ; this being accomplished, the Covenant could not be 
disannulled, or added to.^ But when we look at Jesus in the light of 
this Divine Covenant, we perceive some grand and important deficiencies 
in its effects, if the history of the past is to be taken as the criterion 
of its accomplishment. In the historical view of the Covenant, we are 
led to the conclusion that it has not been carried out at all ; and that 
its beneficiaries have received none of their Father's estate. Look at 
Abraham. He has received nothmg. The same is true of all who 
believed the things hoped for from his day to this. Even the Lord 
Jesus, who has been perfected, has received nothing of what is assigned 
to him in the covenant. " I will give," said God, " this land to thy 
Seed for ever." Now look at the facts in the case. " Jesus came to 
his oion, and his own received him not."" What is to be understood 
by this ? What is signified by " his own " twice repeated in this text ? 
The facts in the case supply the answer. Jesus came " unto his own 
things " (kingdom, or reahn) ; btit his own people, the Jews, who are 
'' the children of the kingdom," did not receive him ; but rejected, 
and crucified him. " But to as many as received him, to them 
gave he power to become the sons of God, to them luho helieve 
in his 7iamey 

But, what constituted the land of Canaan his realm, more than 
John the Baptist's, or any other Jew's? Because it was promised to 
him in the covenant ; and because he was the sole surviving heir of 
David's throne. We see, however, that, like his father Abraham, he 
never possessed even so much as to set his foot upon ; and so x^oor was 

« Matt. xxvi. 28 ; Heb. ix. 15-17. ^ Gal. iii. 15. « Joha i. 11. 



THE MEDIATOR OF THE NEW CO^^NANT. 217 

he, that though " the foxes had holes, and the birds of the air had nests, 
yet he had not where to lay his head," Under God, he was indebted 
to some of those who received him for his daily bread. What signifi- 
cancy this fact attaches to that petition of the prayer he taught his 
disciples, saying, " Our Father, who art in heaven, give us this day our 
daily bread." There were thirteen of them, himself and the twelve, 
who had all to be provided for from day to day ; and though he could 
multiply a few loaves and fishes to feed thousands, his own wants were 
supplied by contribution. 

When Jesus was crucified, and buried, his enemies conceived that 
his claims to the realm and throne of David were extinct. The common 
people would have taken him and made him king, if he would have 
permitted them ; but the rulers, already possessed of the vineyard, hated 
him ; for they knew that if he should obtain the kingdom they would 
be cast out. They rejoiced, therefore, at his death. But their joy was 
soon turned into dismay ; for God raised him from the dead. And for 
what purpose ? In the words of the apostle, God raised up Christ to 
sit upon David^s throne ;"■ for, in the words of David, " The righteous 
shall inherit the Land, and dwell therein for ever ; " and again, 
" Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to 
inherit the Land."^ 

But, even after his resurrection, when he was made both Lord and 
Christ, though " heir of all things," yet were not all things subjected 
to him. He received neither the land nor the sceptre ; but ascended 
to heaven, having received nothing promised in the covenant. He left 
the land, the kingdom, Abraham, and all the prophets behind him. In 
after years, the land was reduced to a wilderness, its cities laid waste, 
and the Hebrew commonwealth dissolved. It became the battle ground 
of Crusaders, Saracens, and Turks ; and until this day has been 
subjected to the worst of the heathen. Thirty-nine centuries have 
passed away since God confirmed His promise of the land to Christ, 
who has been waiting eighteen hundred years at His right hand for 
its fulfilment. Is Jesus never to possess the land from sea to sea. and 
from the rivers to its extremities? Are Turks and Arabs, and a 
motley crew of Papists, Greeks, and Fellahs to perpetuate its reproach 
for ever ? Or is a Gentile dominion to be established there to lord it 
over. Asia ? 

Where is there a believer of the gospel of the kingdom to be 
found who will affirm it ? Millions of " professing Christians " 
imagine something of the kind ; but they are infidels, and insulters 
of God — not believers in the " covenants of promise." To affirm any 
other destiny for Palestine and Syria than that stated in the promise, 
is, in effect, to tell God that He has spoken falsely. But, on the 
ground that " He cannot lie," what does the nature of the case 
necessitate in order to fulfil the promise to Abraham and Christ? 
This is the answer, and let the reader mark it well : — to meet the 
demands of the covenant, it is indispensable that Jesus return to 
Canaan, and that he raise Abraham from the dead. Reason and 
scripture agree in this. 

« Acts ii. 30 ; Luke i. 31-33. ^ Psalm xxxvii. 29, 34. 



218 THE THINGS OF THE KIKGDOM OF GOD. 

Hence, tlie second advent is as necessary as the first. The 
appearing in sinful flesh was necessary for the dedication of the 
covenant by the death of the " Mediator ; " and the second appearing 
in the spiritual nature in power and great glory, for his effectual 
carrying out of all its provisions. For it is manifest that this cannot 
be done except by One who is all-powerful. Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, and all constitutionally in them, are the beneficiaries. The 
things promised them are eternal life, the land of Canaan, and "a 
city," or state, "whose architect and builder is God." Hence, the 
Mediator must be able to form them out of the dust, and to give them 
life for ever. He must be mighty in battle : for he will have to expel 
the Mohammedans, Catholics, and other barbarians from the land, and 
to restore the kingdom of David " as in the days of old.' 

The accomplishment of these, and many other things to be here- 
after developed, makes the future pre-millennial advent of Christ a 
necessity. There is no room for opinion upon the subject ; for opinion 
implies doubt. It is a matter of absolute certainty ; and the belief of 
it is as essential to a participation in the kingdom of God as faith in 
the death and resurrection of the Lord. For a man to deny the 
advent of Jesus to Palestine in power and glory before the millenniam 
is to proclaim to men and angels his utter ignorance of the glorious 
gospel of the blessed God. To talk aboat his coming at the end of 
the millennium to make a bonfire of the world is ridiculous. Restitu- 
tion and renovation, and not destruction of the earth, is the Almighty 
fiat, as I have already shown at sufficient length. " Come, Lord Jesus, 
come quickly ! " is the heart-breathing of the true believer, who with the 
hearing ear rejoices in the Bridegroom's voice, which says, " Behold, I 
come as a thief, and quickly ; and my reward is icith me, to give every 
man according as his work shall be. Blessed is he that watcheth, and 
keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame."" The 
prolonged absence of Christ for ten more centuries would break the 
hearts of the saints of God, who have long since cried with a loud 
voice, sa3^ing, " How long, Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge 
and avenge our blood on them who dwell on the earth?" No, no ; 
the day is come at length, when he is aboat to gather the vine of the 
earth, to reward his saints, and to destroy the oppressors of the 
world.^ Then will " the kingdoms of the world become those of 
Jehovah and of his King ; and he shall reign for ever and ever ;" and 
the covenant with Abraham concerning Christ will be fulfilled in every 
jot and tittle of its details. 

ABRAHAM THE HEIR OF THE WORLD. 

Abraham and Christ are inseparably associated as co-heirs of the 
covenant of promise. Hence, they are joint-heirs of the country 
mentioned in the covenant. But, out of this arises a question of 
considerable interest — namely, when they jointly possess the land of 
Canaan, what will be their relation to the world at large ? The answer 
to this is, that at that time their name will be great in the earth ; 

o Rev. xxi. 12 : xvi. 15. ^ Rev. xi. 18 : xiv. 19, 20. 



"in cheist." 219 

Abram's descendants will be a great nation ; and lie and Christ will 
be a blessing, by all the families of the earth being in them. This 
was stated in general terms when the gospel was preached to Abraham 
at Haran. In searching out these matters, the phrases " in thee " and 
'" in him,'' and " in thy seed,'' should be particularly attended to. They 
are little words, but full of meaning. 

The reader knows what it is to be in a house, and he is aware 
that he must pass into it before he can be in it. This is the literal. 
Now, suppose we call the house a man ; and in answer to the question, 
Where is he ? we say he is in the man, this would be to speak figura- 
tively, but still scripturally and intelligibly. Before, however, a 
person, or a nation, or a multitude of nations, could be said to be in 
the man Abraham, and in the man Christ Jesus, it is equally clear 
that they must fass into Abraham, and into Christ. Now, although 
many nations may literally come out of one man, a multitude of nations 
cannot literally be packed into one man. When, therefore, nations 
and individuals are said to be in Abraham and in Christ, it is mani- 
fest it must be in a figurative sense. Hence, "in /:/iee," *' in 7zim," 
and " in Christ " are figurative expressions, or terms of constitution. 
They are things of stubborn import. They do not express a feeling, 
but a relationship, which is predicated on belief and obedience. These 
are literal and actual things ; for there is no scriptural faith without 
belief of the letter, or written, or spoken, word ; nor any obedience 
without conformity to prescribed action. To pass, or to be introduced, 
into a man, is to sustain a relationship towards him of faith, affection, 
and allegiance, as prescribed. 

No person, or nation, can introduce themselves into a man ; their 
induction, in other words, must be according to prescription, and not 
according to their own appointment. God, or he to whom, as His 
"Apostle," or Ambassador, He has committed all authority, is the 
only person that can prescribe the formula of induction. Mankind 
are diseased, and cannot cure themselves. " The blessing of Abraham " 
is for their restoration to health and happiness. They are, therefore, 
the recipients of favour, and not the prescribers, or legislators, in the 
case. The nature of the inducting formula is determined by the kind 
of subject to be induced. If the subject to be passed into Abraham 
and Christ be an individual, the formula is spiritual ; that is, it places 
him in a moral and domestic, or family, relationship to them ; but if 
the subject be a nation, or a multitude of nations, then the formula is 
•civil and ecclesiastical, or political. A person in Abraham and Christ 
(and a man cannot be in one without being in the other) is the subject 
of adoption by a spiritual formula, which will be perfected in " the 
Tedemption of his body " at the resurrection ; while nations in Abraham 
and Christ are adopted by a political formula, which is perfected in 
the blessings of good government, peace, equitable laws righteously 
administered, the enlightenment of all classes in the knowledge of 
God, universal prosperity, and so forth. 

The formula of spiritual adoption is exhibited in the gospel. It 
Tequires a man to believe " the promises made of God to the fathers " 
concerning the land of Canaan, the Christ, the blessedness of the 



220 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

nations in Abraham and his seed, eternal life by a resurrection, &c. ; 
and to be baptized into the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When an 
individual has done this, he is in Abraham and Christ, and an heir 
with him of the promises he believes. So that " the seed,'' though 
spoken of one person — that is, of Christ — comprehends all the believers 
of the promises, who by adoption are " in him.'' The phrase " the 
seed " is therefore used in an individual and federal acceptation. 
Hence, whatever is promised to Abraham and Christ is also promised 
to their federal constituents — to the sons of Abraham, and brethren of 
Christ, by adoption into the family of God, 

But the formula of national, or political, adoption has not yet 
been promulgated to the world. ISIo people has ever been politically 
in God but Israel. The natural descendants of Abraham in the line 
of Isaac and Jacob became the people of God in a national sense by 
the adoption provided in the Mosaic law. But no other nation before 
or since has ever stood in the same relationship to Him. Neither 
Egypt of old, nor Britain and America of modern times, can say, 
" We are the people of the Lord." God has never called these 
nations '^ My people," for they have never been the subjects of political 
adoption as Israel were. State religions are established upon the 
hypothesis that the people are God's people ; and therefore as 
acceptable worshippers as the Jews under the law ; and that they are 
constitutionally " in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ ! " 
Hence, they call the nations of Europe " Christian nations." 

But a greater fallacy was never entertained. There are no 
Christian nations ; neither indeed can there be until the formula of 
political adoption shall be made known. The nations are now in Satan 
their father, and in his vicegerent the Lord Pope, Hence, it may be 
^aid to them as Jesus said to the ralers and clergy of Israel, " Ye are 
of your father the Devil, and the works of your father ye do." The 
Devil is their father by birth and constitution. The nations of Europe 
became tlie people of Satan by constitution, when they put on the 
Pope as their high priest and mediator according to the Justinian code. 
Having received this, they became Satan's seed, and the Pope's 
brethren ; and being thus, in Satan and in the Pope, are joint-heirs 
with them of a *' just punishment, even an everlasting destruction " 
to issue forth " from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his 
power ; " " and which hangs over them, like the hair-suspended sword 
of Dionysius, ready to fall with death-dealing vengeance on every side. 

But a time' is coming when the Antichristian, Mohammedan, and 
pagan, nations of the world, will all become the people of God, and, 
therefore. Christian. This is evident from the testimony of scripture, 
which saith, " In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to 
Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian 
into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve ivith the Assy7nans. In 
that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and Assyria, even a 
hlessing in the midst of the Land : whom the Lord of Hosts shall 
bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of 
my hands, and Israel mine inheritance." ^ And again it is written of 

a 2 Thess. i. 8.' ^'..Tsaiali xix. 23. 



CONVERSION BY COERCION. 221 

CHrist, " He shall come down like rain upon tlie mown grass ; as 
showers that water the earth. In his days shall the righteous flourish ; 
and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have 
dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the 
earth. They (the Arabs) that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before 
him ; and his enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish, 
and of the isles, shall bring presents ; the kings of Sheba and Seba 
shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him : ali, nations 
SHAIL SERVE HIM. His name shall endure for ever ; his name shall be 
continued as long as the sun ; and men shall be blessed in him : all 
nations shall call him blessed."^ 

According to this testimony, it is proved, that the nations, or 
families, of the earth will become the people of God as well as Israel, 
who will have the pre-eminence among them as the inheritance of the 
Lord ; and so Israel and the nations will constitute a kingdom and 
empire, which will then compose " the WorZd," and be blessed in him 
and Abraham ; whose subjects will reciprocate the benefits bestowed 
upon them, and serve their god-like rulers with heart-felt loyalty, and 
blessings upon his name for ever. 

But when we contemplate the nations now in Satan, and Israel 
scattered to the four winds, and compare their present condition with 
what it is to be when they all serve Christ and are blessed in him 
and Abraham, we perceive the womb of futurity to be pregnant of a 
mighty change ; and one, too, which cannot be effected by mild and 
persuasive measures. The time for persuasives has passed away. 
The nations turn a deaf ear to every thing which is not in harmony 
with their lusts. Hence, coercion can alone bring them to wait for 
the divine law. For this reason, it is testified of Christ — " He shall 
break in pieces the oppressor ; " and " will execute vengeance in 
anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard. And 
the nations shall see and be confounded at all their (Israel's) might : 
they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. 
They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their 
holes like worms of the earth : they shall be afraid of the Lord, 
Israel's God, and shall fear because of thee ! "^ 

This testimony shows that the nations will be reduced to abject 
submission, even the most powerful among them. Their courage and 
means of resistance will have departed ; for by the sword of the Lord 
and of Israel they will have been subdued. At this crisis, however, 
they will find a deliverer in him who hath overcome them.'' " Look 
unto me," saith he, " and be ye saved all the ends of the earth ; for 
I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself," to 
Abraham, " the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, 
and shall not return, that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue 
shall swear, saying, Surely in the Lord have I righteousness and 
strength : even to him shall men come."^ If we turn to this oath of 
subjection and future blessing, we shall see what is meant by every. 
knee bowing to the Lord. " By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, 

« Psalm kxii. 6-11, 17. i Mic. v. 15 : vii. 16, 17. « Rev. xvii. 14 : xix. 11-21. 
d Isaiak xlv. 22, 23. 



222 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

for because thou, Abraham, hast done this thing, and hast not with- 
held thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in 
multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the 
sand which is upon the sea-shore ; and thy seed (Christ) shall possess 
the gate of his enemies ; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the 
earth be blessed ; because thou hast obeyed my voice. "^ 

The nations being prepared by coercion, the formula of political 
adoption is promulgated to them. This is contained in the law which 
goes forth from Zion. The details of this law are not all specified. 
In the general, it establishes the power of the Lord, then become 
" a great mountain filling the whole earth,"^ above all other powers ; 
and constitutes the newly erected Temple in Jerusalem " the house 
of prayer for all nations."" This law gives the kingdom to the 
daughter of Jerusalem, which is Zion ; where the Lord reigns over 
them henceforth for ever.^ The nations accept the law, which saves 
them from extermination. This is evinced by the effects which follow 
its promulgation. They all flow to Jerusalem as the centre of the 
world, and fountain of all blessings ; for " my springs," saith the 
Lord, " are in thee." They go thither for instruction in the ways of 
the Lord, and return to walk in his paths, to live at peace among 
themselves, to abandon the study of war, and to devote themselves to 
agriculture, commerce, and the arts.^ This is the millennial future 
state. Abraham and Jesus are, then, the greatest personages upon 
the earth ; the former being the spiritual father of Jesus and the 
saints, and the political father of a multitude of nations, over whom 
Christ and his brethren rule until " the end^f 

Such is " the world " of which Abraham and his Seed are the 
heirs. Speaking of the latter in this relation, the apostle says, " Whom 
God hath appointed heir of all things, and on account of whom he 
constituted the Ages "^ — the Age of Jubilees, and the Jubilee Age. 
And to the joint-heirs of Abraham and Christ he says, " Let no man 
glory in men : for all things are yours ; the ivorld, life, death, things 
'pn-'esent and things to come ; all are yours ; and ye are Christ's ; and 
Christ is God's."'' And again, " Do ye not know that the saints shall 
judge the world ? "' The verb here rendered judge is the same as is 
translated " go to laio " in the preceding verse. The apostle, therefore, 
asks if they do not know that they will sit judicially, and dispense 
justice to the world, according to the divine law ; and because this is 
their destiny, he positively forbids believers in the covenants of promise 
to submit themselves to the judgment of the unjust. It is better, says 
he, for one to be defrauded than to submit to such a humiliation. Let 
the heirs of the world arbitrate their own affairs in the present state ; 
for it is a strange thing if men, whose destiny is to judge the world 
and angels, cannot settle things pertaining to this life. 

Thus, then, there are three parties, yet constitutionally one family, 
who are heirs of the world as it will be politically organized in the 
Future Age — namely, Abraham, Christ, and the believers in the 

a Gen. xxii. ] 6, 18. ^ Dan. ii. 35. « Isaiah Ivi. 7. ^ Mic. iv. 7, 8 ; Isaiali xxiv. 23. 
« Isaiah ii. 2-4 : Ix. 5, 10. / 1 Cor. xv. 24. 9 Heb. i. 2. ^ i Qor. iii. 21-23. 

i 1 Cor. Ti. 2. 



THE IKEERITA^TE OF THE SAINTS. 223^ 

promises made to them, called saints, who are in Abraham as their 
father, and in his Seed as their elder brother. These are the inheritors 
of the kingdom and empire attached to the land of Canaan — " the 
children of the promise who are counted for the Seed ;" and "not of 
the world," or subjects. These are men in the flesh, Jews and 
Gentiles, whose lives and fortimes will be at the disposal of the Royal 
Family of God. The members of this social circle are not known now 
by the world, which has set its affections upon those who mislead it, 
teaching it to look for a visionary elysium beyond the skies ! But such 
leaders as these have no light in them, for they do not speak according 
to the law and the testimony. The word of God converts their wisdom 
into folly, declaring in the teeth of their traditions that " he that 
putteth his trust in God shall possess the land, and shall inherit his 
holy mountain ;''^ while Israel in the flesh " shall be all righteous ; 
they shall inherit the land for ever, as the branch of the I^ord's plant- 
ing, the work of his hands, that he may be glorified. A little one 
shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation. I, saith 
the Lord, will hasten it in its time."^ 

THE TOKEN OF THE COVENANT. 

It was fourteen years after the confirmation of the covenant, and 
when Abram had attained the age of ninety and nine, that the Lord 
appeared to him to repeat his promises, and to appoint the token ol 
the covenant. On this occasion, God talked with him, and changed 
his name from Abram to Abraham, as an everlasting memorial that he 
had made him heir of the world, by constituting him a father of a 
great multitude. " Behold," said God, " my covenant is with thee, 
and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name 
any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham ; for a 
father of many nations have I constituted thee." And besides this 
constitutional fatherhood, the Lord assured him that though so old, he 
should be prolific of multitudes which should descend from his own 
loins. "I will make thee," said he "exceeding fruitful, and I will 
make nations of thee ; and kings shall come out of thee." The Lord 
then announced, that the covenant he had confirmed should be 
established between him and Abraham, and his fleshly descendants in 
their generations for an everlasting covenant ; and that He would be a 
God to him and to them. He also again declared His oft-repeated 
promise, saying, " I will give unto thee, and to thy Seed after thee, 
the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for 
an everlasting possession : and I will be their God."" 

In the passage from which this is taken, God says, " I loill make 
my covenant between me and thee ; " and afterwards, '' Behold my 
covenant is with thee." The " will make " refers to a covenant subse- 
quent to that confirmed fourteen years before. That to be made was 
the token of that which was already made ; and " the seal of the 
righteousness of the faith which Abram had when it was counted to 
him for righteousness."'^ " This," said God, " is my covenant which 

«■ Isaiah hdi. 13. ^ Isaiah Ix. 14, ] 8, 21, 22. « Gen. svii. 1-8. ^ Rom. iv. II. 



224: THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

ye sliall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee : every 
man-cliild among yoa shall be circumcised ; and it sliall be a token 
of the covenant betwixt me and you Abraham." The appointing of 
this token in their flesh was the establishment of the covenant with 
Abraham's seed in the time of Isaac and Jacob in their generations. 
When, therefore, Israelites behold the mark in their flesh it reminds 
them, that they are " the children of the covenant which God made 
with their fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy Seed shall all 
the kindreds of the earth be blessed ; "" that the land of Canaan, all 
of it, is promised to them for an everlasting possession ; but that an 
everlasting possession in it can only be attained by belief of the 
things promised in the covenant being counted to them for righteous- 
ness in the way of God's appointment. They know, or rather ought 
to know, that the sign of circumcision and the Mosaic law, can give 
them no title to the everlasting occupancy of Canaan, either as indi- 
viduals, or as a nation. It is circumcision of the heart, of which 
circumcision of the flesh is but the sign of the circumcised heart of 
Abraham, that confers a title to the land and all its attributes. 
Before Israel can inherit the land for ever, and so be no more 
expelled by " the Horns of the Gentiles," they must " circumcise the 
foreskin of their hearts, and be no more stiff-necked ; " and " love 
the Lord their God with all their heart, and with all their 
soul, that they may live."^ This may seem to some to put their 
restoration a long way off. And so it does, if the circumcision of 
tlieir hearts is to be effected by the instrumentality of the Society for 
the Conversion of the Jews. By the well-meant endeavours of this 
body, it never can be accomplished ; for the Society and its agents 
are themselves deficient in this particular. 

But " God is able to graft them in again ; "'^ and testifies by His 
prophets, saying, " A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit 
will I put within you, Israel ; and I will take away the stony heart 
out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will 
j)ut my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and 
ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell 
in the land that I gave to your fathers ; and ye shall be my people, 
and I will be your God. I will also save you from all your unclean- 
ness ; and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no 
famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the 
increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine 
among the heathen."'^ In this testimony, while Moses exhorted them 
to circumcise the- foreskin of their hearts, the Lord says that He will 
change their hearts Himself ; not, however, by " the foolishness of 
preaching," for that has failed even by the mouth of apostles energised 
by the spirit : but by means in reserve which will astonish Israel and 
the world, and of which He has spoken at large in the holy scriptures. 
I will anticipate this part of the subject so far as to say, that the 
Lord has left on record an illustration of the manner in which He 
changes the heart of a nation, and plants them in a land flowing with 

a Acts iii. 25. ^ Deut. x. 6 : xxx. 6. <■ Rom. xi. 23. '^ Ezelc. xxxvi. 26-30 : 

xxxix. 25-2-9. 



CIRCUMCISION ORDAINED AFTER THE PROMISE. 225 

milk and honey, in the history of Israel's exode from Egypt, and their 
. settlement in the land of Canaan. This is a representation on a small 
scale of how He intends to graft them in again, as He has declared by 
the prophets. 

In after times circumcision came to be performed as a mere 
custom, or ceremony. An institution of God, that was appointed as a 
memorial of His promise concerning the everlasting possession of 
Canaan and the world; and of that righteousness by faith of the 
promise which could alone entitle to it : and which was to express the 
faith of those who practised it — degenerated into a mere form which 
was observed, like infant sprinkling, by " the pious " and most ungodly 
characters alike. But, it is evident, that circumcision, being instituted 
after the covenant of promise was confirmed, and after Abraham 
had obtained a title to it by a righteousness of faith, could confer upon 
the person circumcised no right to possess the things promised for 
ever : and certainly none to reprobates who practised it, as Turks and 
wild Arabs do now, because their fathers have done it before them, 
time immemorial to them. 

What obligation, then, did this sign of the covenant, and seal of 
Abraham's j astification by faith without circumcision, impose upon the 
circumcised ? Let the apostle answer the question. " I testify," says 
he, " to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the 
luhole laio.''^ This was a fearful obligation for a ma,n to be brought 
under, who sought to be justified, to the end that he might obtain 
an everlasting inheritance in the land of Canaan, which implies the 
acquisition of eternal life and glory. The law was weak through 
the flesh ; and gave only the knowledge of sin. It was an unbearable 
yoke of bondage ; and a law which no man born of the will of the 
flesh had been able to keep without sin. If, then, a man sought to 
obtain a right to an everlasting possession of the land by obedience to 
it, he had undertaken an impossibility ; for the law, on account of 
human weakness, could give no one a right to live for ever ; and with- 
out life eternal a man could not everlastingly possess the land ; and 
this life no one can attain to who is not justified from all his past sins ; 
for if in his sins he is under the sentence of death, as it is written, 
" the wages of sin is death." The apostle speaks directly to the point ; 
for he says, " If there had been a law given, which could have given 
(a title to) life (eternal), verily righteousness (or justification from past 
sins to life) should have been by the law : "^ "for if righteousness had 
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain."" He says explicitly, 
" By the law shall no flesh be justified." A circumcised person is 
therefore bound to keep that which he cannot possibly keep ; and 
which if he did keep could not benefit him, because justification 
to life is by faith in the promise, and not by conformity to the 
Mosaic law. 

The relation of the Jews to eternal life as individuals, and to the 
everlasting possession of Canaau in blessedness and peace as a nation, 
is manifest. They are circumcised, and therefore bound to keep the 
whole law ; by which law they seek to be j ustified. But, how vain 

^ Gal. V. 3. b Gal. iii. 21. « Gal. ii. 21. 



226 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

and impossible is their enterprise ! The law says, " Carsed is every- 
one that continneth not in all things written in the book of the law to 
do them ; "" and so unexceptional is this sentence, that it even cursed 
the Lord Jesus, saying, " Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a 
tree ; "^ and in this way he was made a curse for men.'' Now, the 
law teaches, that without the shedding of blood there is no remission 
of sins, and prescribes certain sacrifices which must be offered upon 
an altar in Jerusalem, and there only. To say nothing of other 
impossible things, these offerings, which are indispensable, the Jews 
neither do, nor can, present. These are things, then, they do not 
continue in, and therefore they are cursed by the law, and condemned 
by Moses in whom they trust. They are under sentence of death, and 
of eternal exclusion from all inheritance in Canaan and the world. 
They may possibly beHeve in the promise made to Abraham, that God 
will give the land to him and the Christ ; but they deny that Jesus 
is the person named in the covenant, which is tantamount to rejecting 
the covenant itself. 

While circumcision obliged Israel to keep the whole law, in which 
there was an annual remembrance of national offences, it gave them 
through that law only a tenant at will occupancy of the land of 
Canaan ; and that not to the extent which pertains to its everlasting 
possession. This appears from the words of Moses, as it is written, 
" If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law, ye shall be 
plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it."'^ The 
condition of their tenancy was their good behaviour. If they served 
God according to the law of the land He had given. He would bless 
them in their basket and store ; but if they served other gods, He 
would let in the worshippers of those gods upon them, and expel 
them from the country. Israel has rebelled ; and therefore they are 
in dispersion, until the time appointed shall come to remember 
the covenant made with the fathers ; and therefore to remember 
the ]and.^ 

The national tenancy of Canaan under the law being leasehold, no 
purchases of freehold estates could be made in the land. If Israel 
had been a freeholder, the case would have been different. But the 
land belonged to the Lord ; and they had no more right to grant it 
away in parcels for ever, than the tenant under a twenty-one j^ears' 
lease has to cut up his holding into lots, and sell them to purchasers 
for ever. Israel were the Lord's tenants ; and the law said to them 
on the part of their Landlord, " The land shall not be sold for ever ; 
for the land is mine, and ye are strangers and sojourners with me ; " 
so that " in all the land of ^^our possession ye shall grant a redemption 
for the land." Hence, if poverty compelled a man to sell his farm, 
it was always redeemable by himself, or kin, according to certain 
conditions ; but, if neither could raise the money to redeem, the estate 
was not lost to the original owner ; for though it remained in the 
hands of the purchaser, he was obliged to return it for nothing at the 
year of jubilee.^ Even under the new constitution, when the nation 

a Deut. xxvii. 26. ^ Deut. xxi. 23. c Gal. iii. 13. d Deut. xxviii. 58, 63. 
« Lev. xxvi. 40-42. / Lev. xxv. 23-28. 



PART FOR A TIME IS NOT " ALL " " FOR EVER." 227 

obtains everlasting possession, the servants of tlie Prince will have to 
surrender his territorial gifts at the year of liberty ; while his sons 
v«dll possess them for ever." 

The covenant of promise confers a more extensive holding of the 
country than the law of Moses. At no time of their occupation did 
Israel possess all the land from the Euphrates to the Nile, as promised 
in the covenant ; and even if they had, such holding would not have 
been in the sense of the covenant, for they have not held possession 
according to the limits defined " for ever.'' *' All the land of Canaan 
for an everlasting possession " is the promise ; but the indisputable 
fact is, that Israel have only possessed a part of it for a limited and 
turbulent period. In Solomon's days, when the nation was at its 
zenith under the law, the land was jointly possessed by Israel, the 
Tyrians, and the remains of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, 
Jebusites, &c. ; but when the age of the covenant arrives, Israel 
under Shiloli will possess it all ; " and there shall be no more the 
Canaanite in the house of the Lord of Hosts."^ 

No uncircumcised person was permitted to be a member of 
Abraham's family. Home-born, or purchased, slaves, as well as sons, 
were to be alike circumcised, or else to be cut off ; for he that was 
uncircumcised on the eighth day after the first circumcisions when 
instituted, or not at all, had broken the Lord's covenant. This was a 
great calamity ; for none hut circumcised persons can inherit the 
promises. This may startle ; but it is strictly true. It will, however, 
be remembered that true circumcision is of the heart. Circumcision 
of the flesh is but an oiitward sign of Abraham's circumcision of 
heart ; and every one who would inherit with faithful Abraham must 
be circumcised of heart likewise. When he was circumcised of heart 
his faith in God was imputed to him for remission of sins that were 
past. His former idolatry, &c., was forgiven, and the body of the 
sins of his flesh put off. Now, a man believing what Abraham 
believed with the same effect on his disposition and life, is also cir- 
cumcised of heart, when, in putting on Christ, he is " circumcised 
with the circumcision made without hands by the circumcision of 
Christ," performed on the eighth day according to the law. Inputting 
on Christ, his faith is counted to him for righteousness as Abraham's 
was. " The body of the sins of his flesh " is cut off. The foreskin 
of his heart is circumcised, and he is the subject of " circumcision in 
the spirit ; " and his praise, though not of men, is pronounced of 
God.-' 

Now, I respectfully inquire, wiU a man who understands the 
signification of circumcision of the flesh, and the nature of circumcision 
of the heart, jeopardize his reputation for soundness of mind by 
saying that infant-sprinkling, even if a scriptural practice, was 
divinely appointed in the room of circumcision in flesh or spirit ? 
That the immersion of a man of the same faith and disposition as 
Abraham's is connected with circumcision, I have shown ; to such a 
man, immersion into the glorious name is the tohen of his justification 
by faith, as circumcision of the flesh was to Abraham. It is, indeed, 

« Ezek. xlvi. 16-18. ^ 2 Chron. viii. 7 ; ZecL xiv. 21. c Rom. ii. 28. 



228 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

a substitute for circumcision of the flesh ; but the accompaniment 
also for circumcision of the heart : and as all of Abraham's faith 
were to be cut off from his people who were not circumcised in 
flesh, so all of his faith now will be cut off who are not immersed ; for 
immersion is the appointed, and only appointed, means of putting on 
the circumcision of Jesus Christ by which the body of the sins of the 
flesh are put off." But this is a very different affair to infant-rhantism 
coming in the room of circumcision of the flesh. SupjDOse it did, 
then the law of circumcision must have become the law of the 
substitute — that is, of infant-sprinkling. The rhantized subject, then, 
is bound to keep the whole law, and in default thereof comes under 
its curse. The immersion of an unbeliever amounts to nothing. To 
such a person it is no token. What shall we say, then, of the 
rhantism of an infant ? Is the sprinkling, and marking it with the 
sign of a cross, a token to it, or to others, that it is "justified by 
faith, and has peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ?" Or 
is it a sign of the faith of its godfathers and godmothers, or of its 
parents, of their being justified by faith, and circumcised of heart ? Or 
is it a token that the clerical administrator has faith in the covenant of 
promise ? Nay, rather, it is a token of the astounding ignorance of 
the letter and spirit of the gospel, and of the Judaism of all concerned ; 
and a striking illustration of that " strong delusion " spread over the 
face of all people as a covering veil.^ 

THE ALLEGORY. 

Abraham had two sons — Ishmael, the son of Hagar, an Egyptian 
handmaid ; and Isaac, the son of Sarah. Ishmael was fourteen years 
old when Isaac was born. He was born in the ordinary course of 
things, and therefore said to be " born after the flesh ; " while Isaac 
was born out of the usual course, Sarah being ninety and Abraham a 
hundred, she being also strengthened of God, according to the 
promise, and consequently said to be " born after the Spirit." Hagar 
was a bondwoman ; but Sarah was free : yet, had it been left to 
Abraham, he would have made Ishmael his heir as well as Isaac, for 
he loved them both. But Ishmael manifested an evil spirit towards 
Sarah and Isaac, which he had imbibed from his mother. Moses says, 
he mocked Isaac, or spoke contemptuously of him ; which the apostle 
terms persecuting him, and characteristic of those of Ishmael's class. 
Sarah's indignation was fired at this ; " Wherefore, she said unto 
Abraham, cast out this bondwoman and her son : for the son of this 
bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac." Although 
Abraham was exceedingly grieved at this, God approved of Sarah's 
decision ; and informed him that Christ should descend from Isaac, 
and not from Ishmael, saying, " In Isaac shall thy Seed he called : " 
nevertheless, because Ishmael was his son, he would make a nation of 
him also with twelve princes for its fathers. 

This fragment of Abraham's history has a signification beyond 
what appears on the face of it. The apostle informs us that the 

a Col. ii. 11, 12. 1 2 Thess. ii. 11 ; Isa. xxv. 7. 



THE ALLEGORY OF ISmiAEL AND ISAAC. 229 

incidents are allegorical. That, is, that the tioo loomen and their charac- 
teristics, represent tiuo covenants ; and the tioo sons of Abraham by 
them, two seeds, or classes of persons. The covenants are, " the one 
from Mount Sinai in Arabia," and the other, the covenant confirmed 
of God 430 years before that of Sinai was promulgated ; and which, 
being a matter of promise, the subject of which is Christ as the 
inheritor of Canaan, and its future king in Jerusalem, now at the 
right hand of God, is said to be "Jerusalem which is above." The 
apostle says, that Jerusalem is the subject of both these covenants ; 
but in different periods of her history. During her existence as the 
metropolis of the Hebrew commonwealth under its Sinaitic constitu- 
tion, she was represented by Hagar the bondwoman ; because the 
covenant from Sinai " gendered to bondage ; " and in consequence the 
citizens of the commonwealth were in bondage with the mother city. 
They were " entangled with the yoke of bondage," " under the rudi- 
ments of the world." They were bound to keep the whole law, by 
which they sought to be justified ; and as they could not do it owing 
to the weakness of the flesh, they came under the curse. 

But this state of things was only provisional. God did not intend 
the Hebrew commonwealth to exist perpetually under the Sinaitic 
constitution. Israel was not always to be in bondage to the law of 
Moses. A great revolution was predetermined of God, which should 
result in the abolition of the Arabian covenant, and the dispersion of 
Israel among the nations. This is allegorically styled " easting out 
the hondiuoman and her son ; " which was necessary for the good and 
all-sufiicient reason, that the Sinaitic constitution of the common- 
wealth of Israel, was not adapted for the people and State when 
Christ should sit upon the throne of his father David, and the saints 
should possess the kingdom. The law of Moses enjoined ordinances 
concerning the flesh, such as " the water of separation,"'' which 
would be quite incompatible with the realities of the Age to Come. 
Under the law there was " a remembrance again of sins every 
year ; "^ but under the New Constitution from heaven, " the sins and 
iniquities of the people will be remembered no more."" The Sinaitic 
constitution was faulty ; it was therefore necessary that it should give 
place to a better, which shall be established on better promises.'^ Hence, 
the bondwoman was to be cast out, to make room for a more perfect 
arrangement of the commonwealth. 

Since the expulsion of Israel by the Romans, Jerusalem and her 
children are in the situation of Hagar and her son, while wandering 
in the wilderness of Beersheba. She is divorced from the Lord as 
Hagar was from Abraham, and " being desolate she sits upon the 
ground,"^ and bewails her widowhood./ But, there is to be " o 
restitution of all tilings. '" Jerusalem is to become a free woman as 
Sarah was ; and to take her stand in the midst of the earth, as 
^'the city whose architect and huilder is God^ She will then 
'' remember the reproach of her widowhood no more. For her 
Maker will be her husband ; the Lord of Hosts is his name ; and her 

n Numb, xix.; Heb. ix. 13. z>Heb. x. 3. ^ Jer. xxxi. 31-34. d Heb. viii. 6, 7. 
e Gen. xxi, 1 ; Isaiali iii. 26. / Isaiah liv. 4. 



230 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

Redeemer the Holy One of Israel (even Jesus) the God of the whole 
earth shall he he called^ She will then be the metropolis of the world ; 
and her citizens, or children, will be more numerous than those she 
rejoiced in under the law, as a married wife. The period of her glory- 
will have arrived ; the twelve tribes be again the united, peaceful, 
and joyoas inhabitants of the land ; the " greater than Solomon," 
their king ; and his city, "the heavenly Jerusalem," which " is free, 
and the mother of us all." 

But, while Hagar represents Jerusalem under the law ; and Sarah, 
Jerusalem under the new constitution of the Hebrew commonwealth ; 
Ishmael represents Israel, glorying in their fleshly descent from 
Abraham, and boasting in the law ; and Isaac, those of Israel and the 
Gentiles, who regard the flesh as profiting nothing, and who are the 
sons of Abraham by believing the promises made to him and to his 
seed. Hence, Ishmael and Isaac represent two seeds, or classes of 
mankind, who shall not be heirs together of the promise. Indeed, 
their natures are so opposite, that it would be impossible for them to 
fulfil in concert the destiny marked out for those who are to inherit 
the promises. The Ishmaelite-seed are wild men ; whose hands are 
against all who believe the truth. They are mockers ; for as Ishmael 
mocked Isaac, so Israel mocked Jesus, and spoke reproachfully of 
him and his brethren, who are one. The kingdom to be established 
is a righteous dominion, and requires righteous men for its adminis- 
tration ; as it is written, *' He that ruleth over men must he just, 
ruling in the fear of the Lord^"' It is impossible, therefore, that 
the Ishmaelite-seed can be heirs of the promise. All the honour, 
glory, and power, of the state were in their hands under the Arabian 
covenant ; and cruel and unjust was the use they made of their 
position. They put Jesus to death ; and persecuted those to whom 
"he gave power to become the sons of God," believing on his name ; 
and were " contrary to all men ; forbidding the apostles to speak to 
the Gentiles, that they might be saved. "^ They were then '' first ;^' 
but power was destined to change hands, when they who were " the 
first shall he last^ They had killed the heir that the inheritance 
might be theirs ; but they have been destroyed, and the vine^^ard now 
remains to be bestowed upon others, who shall render its Lord the 
fruits in their seasons.'^ Thus, as in the case of Ishmael and Isaac, 
*' he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after 
the spirit, even so," says the apostle, " it is now ; " and, we may add, 
€ver will be, until -the times of the restitution of the State when " the 
last shall be first," and beyond the reach of evil. 

No one but God had the right, or the power, to appoint " the heir 
of all things^ Abraham could not appoiut him, neither could he 
be self-appointed. Abraham wished that Ishmael might be the heir ; 
or, as he expressed it, "0 that Ishmael might live before thee." But 
God would not consent to this. He therefore j)romised to give him 
one for the heir, wh®m he should call Isaac ; and of whom He said, 
" I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, 
and with his seed after him."'^ But. Isaac was not only born of 

« 2 Sam. xxiii. 3. ^ 1 Thess. ii. 15, 16. « Matt. xxi. 38, 41. d Qen. xvii. 19. 



FUTURE CAimYING OUT OF THE ALLEGORY. 231 

promise ; he believed the promises likewise : for the scripture saith, 
*' By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to comey 
Now, it is written, " In Isaac shall thy seed be called " — that is, 
Christ shall descend from him, and all who helieve the promises, and 
put on Christ, shall be considered as "in Isaac; " and, being thus 
" the children of the promise," shall be " counted for the seed,''"- who 
shall inherit the land and the world for ever. " The seed,'' then, is a 
phrase that must be understood in a twofold sense — first, as referring 
to Christ ; and secondly, to all who are constitutionally in him. Isaac 
is representative of both : for Christ was in his loins, and all " in 
him" must be constitutionally in Isaac also. 

For want of understanding the scripture doctrine of the two seeds, 
some very fatal mistakes have been made by many well-meaning 
persons. They have gone so far as to deny that the seed of Abraham 
after the flesh will ever be restored to the land of Canaan, which is 
in effect to deny the fulfilment of a vast proportion of " the testimony 
of God." The seed of the serpent, and the seed of the woman, 
indicated before the Flood, were afterwards distinguished in the seed 
of Ishmael, and the seed of Isaac. " The children of the flesh are 
not the children of God ; neither are they all Israel, who are of 
Israel."^ This is true ; but it does not therefore follow that there is 
nothing more to be done with " the children of the flesh " than to 
burn them up. To carry out the allegory, God has yet to make of 
the Ishmael-seed a great nation ; for though Ishmael was an outcast 
and a wanderer in the wilderness, God promised that he should be 
g-reat, and dwell in the presence of his brethren." The children of 
Abraham according to the flesh are " the children of the king- 
dom "^ as well as the children of the promise ; only these two classes of 
children stand in a different relation to the government and glory of 
the commonwealth, and to the dominion of the nations in the age to 
■come. The Ishmael-children were cast out of the government by the 
Romans ; but the children in Isaac will " shine forth as the sun in 
the kingdom of their Father," when the kingdom is restored again 
to Israel.* 

" In the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne 
of his glor}^," the children in Isaac will reign as ''sons;" while the 
children of the flesh will be the king's subjects, or " servants." This 
distinction is apparent from the following testimony : " Instead of thy 
fathers shall be thy children, whom they mayest make princes 
throughout all the earth ; "/ of whom it is said, " If the Prince give 
a gift unto any of his sons, the inheritance thereof shall be his sons' ; 
it shall be their possession hy inheritance. But if he give a gift of 
his inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall be his to the year 
of liberty ; and after it shall return to the prince : but his inheritance 
shall be his sons' for them."^ The sons of the prince are joint-heirs 
with him ; but the servants of the prince are only leaseholders for a 
certain number of years. If the natural Israel are not restored to 
Canaan, the spiritual Israel, that is to say, the prince and his sons, 

« Rom. ix. 6-8 ; Gal. iv. 28. ^ Rom. ix. 8. " Gen. xvii. 20 : xvi.l2. d Matt. viii. 12 : 
xiii. 28. eActsi. 6. / Psalm xlv. 16. sEzek. xlvi. 16, 17. 



232 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

would inlierit a kingdom withont subjects to serve them. This would 
be like Victoria and her family reigning in Windsor Castle over the 
realm of Britain after all its inhabitants had expatriated themselves to 
the United States. It requires more than a stajf to make a regiment ;. 
so also it requires a multitude of people as well as princes, priests, and 
kings, to constitute a Kingdom in Canaan, or in any other country. 

Now, the children in Isaac become the children of the heavenly 
Jerusalem by believing " the exceeding great and precious promises " 
set forth in " the manifold wisdom of God." They hope to see 
Canaan and Jerusalem under the new covenant, which will constitute 
them both heavenly. They are even now said to have " come to 
Meant Zion, and unto the city of the living God, and to the heavenly 
Jerusalem ; "" but it is as yet only in spirit, that is, by faith and hope : 
and as the city and land will be made heavenly by the Lord from 
heaven, their glorious attributes are in truth " above; " to believe, then,. 
in what will be brought down to the city from above, is for the children 
of the promise in Isaac to stand related to " Jerusalem which is above,, 
the mother of them all."^ Hence, the apostle exhorts them, saj^ing, 
" If then ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, 
where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your affection on 
things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead (ta 
earthly things) and your life is hid with Christ in God. When 
Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with 
him in glory."'' 

PARABLE OF THE SEED. 

Abraham was ninety-nine years old, and Ishmael thirteen, when 
they were circumcised.'^ Isaac was born when Abraham was one 
hundred. Between the circumcision of his household and the birth 
of Isaac, while he was yet living " in the plain of Mamre which i& 
Hebron," the Lord appeared to him, and again promised Sarah a 
son. At this crisis Sodom and Gomorrha were destroyed, and the 
Dead Sea formed. After this catastrophe, Abraham journeyed from 
Hebron towards the south countr}^, and dwelled between Kadesh and 
Shur, and sojourned in Gerar of the Phihstines.'' On his arrival 
there, he entered into an agreement with the king of the country, 
which they confirmed by an oath, by which he was permitted to dwell 
in any part of Philistia he pleased, and a certain well of water was. 
restored to him, called Beer-sheba, which had been violently taken 
away by the king's servants.^ 

After this arrangement Isaac was born according to promise. On 
the day he was weaned, Abraham made a great feast. It was then 
Ishmael was detected mocking at Isaac, which caused his and Hagar's 
expulsion from the family. These being cast out, Abraham planted 
a grove in Beer sheba, and there "called on the name of the Lord,, 
the everlasting God." Having thus settled himself, "he sojourned in 
the Philistines' land many days."» How long he continued there 
may be learned from the following considerations. In his speech 

« Heh. xii. 22. ^ Gal. iv. 26. " Col. iii. 1-4.. d Qeii. xvii. 24, 25. « Gen. xx. 1.. 
/ Gen. XX. 15 : xxi. 25, 31 . o Gen. xxi. 33, 34. 



A CHRONOLOGIC Al. DIFFICULTY SOLVED. 23S 

before the Sanhedrim, Stephen says, " When Abraham's father was 
dead, he removed him into this land wherein ye dwell ; "" that is, he 
returned from Philistia to " Hebron in the land of Canaan."^ Now 
Terah, Abraham's father, was seventy years old when Abraham was 
born ; so that when Isaac was born at Beer-sheba, Terah was a 
hundred and seventy. But Terah li^^ed two hundred and five years, 
and then died at Haran ; and it was after his death that Abraham 
removed to Hebron where Sarah died a^ed one hundred and twenty- 
seven. Now she died two years after Terah ; so that it was in this 
two years that Abraham left Philistia. But Stephen says, it was 
when Terah died he moved to Canaan, which makes the " many days " 
he sojourned in the Philistines' land, thirty-five years from the hirth 
of Isaac. This simple statement of facts removes a difiiculty which 
has puzzled chronologists exceedingly. Moses says Terah died in 
Haran aged two hundred and five ;" and Stephen is made to say that 
Abraham removed from Haran to Canaan when Terah died, therehy 
making Sarah a resident of the country only tico years ! This is the 
fault of the English version, which renders Kaiceidep, " from thence,'' 
instead of afterwards, as it ought to be.-'- " Abraham," said Stephen, 
" dwelt in Haran; and afterwards" — How long after? — " When his 
father was dead, he removed him " — Where from? From Beer-sheba 
of the Philistines. Where to ? To Hebron " in this land wherein 
ye dwell." Thus Moses and Stephen agree. 

Now, at some time while Abraham was sojourning in the land of 
the Philistines, God appeared to him for the purpose of putting his 
faith to the proof ; and of giving him in the person of Isaac, a lively 
representation of what was to befal his seed, the Christ, then in the 
loins of Isaac, before he should be exalted to inherit Canaan and the 
world. The trial was a very severe one. He was commanded to 
take Isaac, " his only son whom he loved," into the land of Moriah ; 
and " offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains,'* 
which God should point out. Moriah was itself a mountain upon which 
Solomon afterwards built the temple f and the land, or region, 
around, is celebrated by the mounts, afterwards called Zion, Olivet^ 
and Calvary. The mountain chosen of God is not named ; I can only 
therefore express my opinion that it was Calvary. It took him till 
" the third day " to arrive at the place, a distance of forty miles in a 
stright line from Beersheba. This will not be surprising when it is 
remembered, that he rode upon an ass, accompanied by two young 
men, beside Isaac, who conveyed the wood, and other necessaries for 
the journey. Their progress was therefore slow. " On the third day 
Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off." He then 
caused the party to halt. He told the young men to stay there with 
the ass ; "and I and the lad," said he, "will go yonder and worship, 
and come again to you.'' But if he were going to slay Isaac, how 
could Isaac and he come again to them ? The apostle explains this, 
saying, " By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac ; and 

« Acts vii. 4. ^ Gen. xxiii. 1, 2. c Q-Qn^ x'l. 32. '^ 2 Chron. iii. 1. 
*■ And as it is translated in Acts xiii. 21. 



234 l^E THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten " of 
Sarah. " Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy Seed be called: 
accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead ; 
from whence also he received him in a parable — ep Trapaf^oXr).^ -Abra- 
ham fully intended to slay Isaac ; but he firmly believed that God 
would raise him from the dead again ; because all the promises God 
bad made him were to be accomplished in Isaac's Seed ; as it is 
written, " My covenant will I establish with Isaac and with his 
seed after him: " therefore, said Abraham to the young men, "we 
will come again to you." 

The parable, or representation, of what was afterwards to happen 
to Isaac's Seed, the Christ, now began. " Abraham took the wood of 
the burnt-offering, and laid it upon Isaac, his son; " while he carried 
the fire and the knife. Isaac went on with great readiness, not in the 
least suspecting that he was the proposed victim. " My father ! " 
said he, as they jogged along ; and he said, " Here am I, my son." 
" Behold, said Isaac, the fire and the wood ; but where is the lamb for 
a burnt-offering?" And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide 
himself a lamb for a burnt-offering." 

Having arrived at the place, built an altar, and laid the wood in 
order, he bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the 
wood. He then stretched forth his hand, and took the knife, to slay 
his son. At this crisis, when Isaac was expecting instant death at 
the hand of his father, who loved him as his only son, the angel of 
the Lord called to him out of heaven, and commanded him to do the 
lad no harm, A ram caught in a thicket by the horns was appointed 
as a substitute for Isaac, who was therefore substitutionally slain ; 
but by his personal deliverance from death, restored to Abraham as 
by a resurrection. Abraham called the place of this memorable 
and instructive transaction, Jehovah-jireh ; and upwards of four 
hundred years afterwards, it was known by the name of " the Mount 
of the Lord."^ 

But before we dismiss the parable of the Seed, it is to be remarked, 
that it was not completed in the figurative resurrection of Isaac. The 
sacrificial death and resurrection of Christ had 'been represented ; but 
then, after these events, what was to be his destiny ? The answer to this 
question is found in the closing incident of the parable. Moses testifies 
that " the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the 
second time.'' The first time he announced from heaven the acceptance 
of the son's sacrifice ; but the second time the Lord spoke from heaven, 
lie had reference to Christ's triumph over his enemies, and his 
possession of the world, as preached to Abraham in the gospel at the 
beginning. " By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because 
thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only 
son : that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I wiU 
midtiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is 
upon the sea shore : and thy Seed shall possess the gate of his enemies ; 
and in thy Seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed ; because 
thou hast obeyed my voice." Thus, the parabolic representation 

"Heb. xi. 17-19. ^ Gen. xxii. 14. 



SUMMARY OF ABRAHAM'S FAITH. 235 

was finisked, " and Abraham returned to his young men ; and 
they rose up, and went together to Beer-sheba ; and Abraham 
dwelt there." 

SUMMARY OF ABRAHAM'S FAITH. 

Abraham is the father of all them who believe, and who walk in 
the steps of that faith which he had while yet uncircumcised. This 
is the apostle's testimony. I think I need scarcely say, yet it may be 
useful to do so, that no one can walk in the steps of Abraham'' s faith 
who does not believe the same things. This is self-evident. It is to be 
to Abraham according to his faith ; and this is the rule for every 
one else. We shall inherit what we have faith in. If we have an 
understanding faith in the truth, we shall inherit the truth ; but if we 
believe in what is not true, and therefore visionary, we shall inherit 
nothing but the whirlwind. Now, if it be asked, *' What is the 
truth ? — the answer is, the things which Abraham believed, with the 
acknowledgment that Jesus is the Seed spoken of in the promises 
made to him. It is, therefore, essential to our salvation that we be 
familiar with the matters of his faith. To make this as easy as possi- 
ble, then, I shall here subjoin a summary of the faith which was 
counted to him for righteousness. I would just remind the reader 
here, that Abraham was justified because he believed on God. This 
does not mean because he believed in the existence of God. This is 
implied. To believe on God in the scripture sense is the " being 
fully persuaded that what he has promised, he is also able to per- 
form ; " and because this was the case with Abraham, " therefore it 
was imputed to him for righteousness." Furthermore, this persuasion 
does not consist in saying, " Whatever it is God has promised I know 
not, but of this I am persuaded, he will perform it." This is not the 
sort of persuasion God accepts. He requires men to acquaint them- 
selves first luith what He has promised, and then to consult the 
testimony He has given until they are fully persuaded, as Abraham 
was. "Now," says the apostle, "it was not written for Abraham's 
sake alone, that his full persuasion of the divine promise was counted 
to him for righteousness ; but for us also to whom it shall be 
imputed if we believe on God."'^ 

In studying the life of Abraham, his biography presents him — 

1. As an idolator under condemnation with the world ; 

2. As a believer of the gospel preached by an angel of the Lord; 
3. 'As justified from all past sins by faith in its promises ; and 
4, As justified by works unto eternal life. 

These four particulars are afiirmable of all Abraham's spiritual 
children. Born of the flesh, they are denizens of the world, and 
heirs of condemnation ; then they believe the gospel ; afterwards 
they are justified by faith from past sins ; and subjected to a subse- 
quent probation by which their faith is tried and made perfect. It is 
worthy of remark here, that Abraham believed the gospel ten years 
hefore his faith was counted to him for righteousness. This appears 
irom the fact that the gospel was preached to him at Haran ; and it 

«Rom. iv. 11, 23. 



236 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

was not until the occasion of the confirmation of the covenant at 
Hebron, that the Lord vouchsafed him an acquittal from all his past 
sins ; which is implied in the testimony that " he believed in the 
Lord ; and he counted it to him for righteousness." This fact ought 
to teach the reader, that it is not at the instant a man helieves that he 
is justified. A man may believe the truth for many years, and yet 
not be the subject of the righteousness of God. If so, it may then be 
asked, " When, or at what point of time, and how, is a man's faith in 
the truth counted to him for remission of sins ? As to the manner of 
its imputation, this must necessarily differ from the case of Abraham. 
The angel of the Lord announced to Abraham his justification 
hy word of mouth; but under the present arrangement of things, 
this is not to be expected. The angel sent to Cornelius did not 
pronounce his justification ; but simply put him in the way of 
attaining it. I trust the reader has not forgotten tlie use of the key 
in his case. 

The scriptures say that through Jesus is now preached the 
remission of sins to those who believe the gospel of the kingdom ; and 
that justification by faith is through his Name. That is, God has 
appointed an institution through which remission of sins is com- 
municated to believers of the things of the kingdom of God and 
the name of Jesus : so that instead of sending an angel to 
announce to each individual that his faith is counted to him for 
righteousness, as in the case of Abraham ; he has caused a general 
proclamation to be made, that ^'through Christ's name'' believers 
may obtain the remission of sins. Now, there is but one way for a 
believer of the gospel to get at this name, to wit, by being " baptised 
into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Spirit." The answer to the question, then, is this, that a mans faith 
in the gospel is counted to him for righteousness in the act of heing 
haptised into the name. There is no other way than this, and even a 
believer of the truth will die in his sins unless he submit to it. 

The " articles," then, of Abraham's faith were these — 

1. That God would multiply his descendants as the stars of heaven 
for multitude, and make them a great and mighty nation ; 

2. That at that time his own name would be great ; 

3. That out of his posterity should arise One, in whom and in 
himself all the nations of the earth should be blessed ; 

4. That he together with this personage should have actual pos- 
session of the land of Canaan for ever ; 

5. That they two, with all his adopted seed, should possess the 
world ; 

6. That the seed, or Christ, would be an only begotten and beloved 
son, even the seed of the woman only, and therefore of God ; that 
he would fall a victim to his enemies ; and in his death be accepted 
as an offering by being raised from the dead, after the example in th© 
case of Isaac ; 

7. That after resurrection, or at " a second time," Christ would 
possess the gate of his enemies in triumph, and obtain the land of 
Canaan, and the dominion of the world according to the promise ; and» 



FAITH AND WORKS IN ABRAHMl's CASE. 237 

8. That, at that time, he and his adopted seed, would be made 
perfect, receive the promises, and " enter into the joy of their Lord." 

Such was the faith of Abraham in outKne, and such must be the 
faith of all who would inherit with him. In conclusion, I would 
direct the reader's attention to the fact, that Abraham was the subject 
of a twofold justification, as it were ; first, of a justification hy faith; 
and secondly, of a justification hy works. Paul says, he was justified 
by faith ; and James, that he was "justified by works." They are 
both right. As a sinner he was justified from his "past sins when his 
faith was counted to him for righteousness ; and as a saint, he was 
justified by works when he offered up Isaac. Of his justification as 
a saint, James writes, " Abraham our father was justified by works, 
when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar. Faith wrought with 
his works, and hy works luas faith made ijerfect. And the scripture 
was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed 
unto him for righteousness : and he was called the friend of God. 
Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not hy faith 
only.''"^ 

I have termed it a twofold justification by way of illustration; 
but it is in fact, only one. The two stand related as cause and effect ; 
faith being the motive principle it is a justification which hegins with 
the remission of sins that are past, and is perfected in obedience unto 
death. The idea may be simplified thus. No exaltation without 
probation. If a man believe and obey the gospel his past sins are 
forgiven him in Christ ; but, if after this he walk in the course of 
the world, his faith is proved to be dead, and he forfeits his title to 
eternal life. But if on the other hand, a man become an adopted 
son of Abraham, and " by a patient continuance in well-doing seek for 
glory, honour, and incorruptibility,"^ he will find everlasting life in 
the Paradise of God. 

a James ii. 21-24. ^ Rom. ii. 7. 



238 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO ISAAC AND JACOB. THE SCRIPTURE 
DOCTRINE OF ELECTION. 

The gospel preached to Isaac. — The election of Jacob. — The scripture doctrine of 
election. — Not according to popular tradition. — How men are elected, and how 
they may know it. — Esau hated. — Vision of Jacob's Ladder. — Jacob's care for 
his body after death. — Joseph's anxiety about his bones. — Jacob's prophecy of 
the Last Days. — Summary of " the faith " at Joseph's death. — Things estab- 
lished. — Chronology of the Age before the Law. 

Abraham's faith having been perfected by the severe trial to which 
it was subjected on the Mount of the Lord, the remainder of his 
sojourn among the living appears to have been no further illustrated 
by angelic visitations. Sarah had died " at Kirjath-arba, the same is 
Hebron in the land of Canaan," two years after his removal from 
Beer-sheba, where he continued to reside for the rest of his days, 
being a period of thirty-eight years. During this time, " the Lord 
blessed him in all things," and he became great in the midst of 
Canaan, though he possessed of it only the field and cave of Mach- 
pelah, which he had purchased for a burial place of the sons of Heth. 
The Lord had given him flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and 
men-servants, and maid-servants, and camels, and asses ',"- and so gave 
him an influence and consideration among the surrounding tribes 
which riches are sure to create. 

But in all his prosperity, he did not forget the promises. He 
had trained up Isaac in his own faith ; and in order to preserve him 
from the evil and corrupting influence of faithless women, and to 
contribute to the future welfare of his descendants, he took an oath of 
his steward that he should not take a wife for his son of the daughters of 
the Canaanites among whom he dwelt ; but from among his kindred in 
Mesopotamia, who appear to have also believed in God.^ The steward, 
however, thought it possible he might not succeed ; but Abraham had no 
such misgiving. " The Lord God of heaven," said he, " who took 
me from my father's house, and from the land of my kindred, and 
who spake unto me, and sware unto me, saying, Unto thy Seed ivill I 
give this land : .he shall send his angel before," and prosper thy way. 

Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, whom he 
brought into Sarah's tent. Sarah had now been dead three years. At 
the end of thirty-five years from this time, Abraham died, being a 
hundred and seventy-five, having " dwelt in tents with Isaac and 
Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise,"" for fifteen years. 
" He was gathered to his people. And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried 
him in the cave of Machpelah " in a good old age, as the Lord had 
told him. "He died having obtained a good report through faith, 
not having received the promises ; that he without the rest of the 

" Gen. xxiv. 35. ^ Gen. xxiv. 20. o Heb. xi. 9. 



I 



THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO ISAAC. 239 

seed liliglit not be made perfect."" Such is tlie scriptural obituary of 
all who die in hope of the kingdom of God. 

After Abraham's decease, Isaac broke up his encampment at 
Hebron, purposing to go down into Egypt in consequence of a famine 
in the land of Canaan. He had travelled south as far as Gerar of the 
Philistines on his way thither. But the Lord appeared unto him there, 
and said : 

" Go not down into Egypt : dwell in the land which I shall tell 
thee of. SojoLirn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee : 
for unto thee, and unto thy Seed will I give all these countries, and I 
will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father ; and I 
will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give 
unto thy seed all these countries : and in thy seed shall all the nations 
of the earth be blessed : because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and 
kept my charge, and commandments, my statutes, and my laws."'' 

In these words, the gospel was preached unto Isaac as it had been 
to Abraham before him. He also believed the Lord ; for on the faith 
of these promises, he proceeded no farther on his way to Eg}^pt, but 
" dwelt in Gerar." There was no uncertainty in Isaac's mind. He 
did not look beyond the grave as to " an undiscovered bourne whence no 
traveller returns." The future was no mystery to him. "Heaven" 
was to him a state of hlessedness upon earth. A well-defined, and 
definable, constitution of things. *' I will bless thee," said God : and 
mark the grounds upon which this blessing was predicated: ^' for,'* 
continued the Lord, 

1. I will give all these countries to thee ; 

2. I will give all these countries to thy seed; " who is Christ,'* 
says the apostle ; 

3. I will make thy seed a great multitude ; 

4. I will give this multitude of people all these countries ; and, 

5. I will bless all nations in thy seed ; the Christ. 

As Abraham had died without receiving these promises made to 
him also ; and as Isaac knew they were to inherit together ; the promise 
of " all these countries " to him, was equivalent to an assurance that 
he should rise from the dead ; when he would see his father and the 
Christ in possession of the land ; and his descendants increased to 
a great multitude, and then become a mighty nation exclusively 
occupying it ; and all the nations happy and contented under the 
dominion of Christ. This was the gospel he believed ; and the heaven, 
and blessedness for which he hoped. 

After this Isaac sowed in the land, and received that year a hun- 
dred-fold ; and " he waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he 
became very great ; and the Philistines envied him." And their king 
said, "Go from us: for thou are much mightier than we." So he 
left Gerar, and went to Beer-sheba. After this, he received a visit 
from the king of Gerar accompanied by one of his friends, and the 
general of his army. But Isaac did not seem pleased at their 
coming ; for he asked them, " Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye 
hate me, and have sent me away from you ? " Their answer shows 

« Heb. xi. 1 3, 39, 40. & Gen. xxvi. 2-5. 



240 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

that tliey were aware of the relation Isaac sustained to God and to 
his promises ; for they rephed, " We saw certainly that the Lord was 
with thee ; we wish therefore to make a covenant with thee that thou 
wilt do ns no hurt ; " and they ended by stating their conviction, 
saying, " Thou art now the hlessed of the Lord ; " that is, Abraham 
being dead with whom we made a covenant before, the blessing of 
God promised to him now rests upon thee, from whom we seek amity 
and peace." 

When Isaac was sixty, and Abraham a hundred and sixty, Esau 
and Jacob were born. Before their birth, the Lord said to Rebekah, 
" Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be 
separated from thy bowels ; and the one people shall be stronger than 
the other people : and the elder shall serve the younger." Upon this 
election, the apostle makes the following remarks, saying, " When 
Rebekah had conceived by our father Isaac : — for the children being 
not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose 
of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him 
that calleth ; — it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. 
As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated."'' This 
election had relation to the purpose of God revealed in the promises 
to Abraham and Isaac. He purposed to make " a mighty nation " 
of their posterity, out of whom "He should come that shall have 
dominion. "'^ This purpose could not be accomplished if left to the 
imdirected will of man. Abraham would have made Ishmael his 
heir, and Isaac would have elected Esau, both of which, as events 
have shown, would have defeated, rather than have promoted, " the 
purpose of God." The wild Arabs of the desert, who have descended 
from Ishmael ; or the Edomites, the posterity of Esau ; both of which 
races illustrate the moral obliquity of their fathers ; would have been 
a sorry election in which the purpose of God might be established. 
The rejection of Ishmael, and the election of Jacob, prove the wisdom 
and foresight of Him with whom the fathers had to do. He sees the 
end of all things from the beginning ; and perceiving the future 
characters of the two races. He said by Malachi, *' I loved Jacob, and 
I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the 
dragons of the wilderness." 

It may be remarked here, that the election of scripture hath refer- 
ence to " the purpose of God " in relation to the constitution of the 
kingdom. He has elected its territory ; He hath elected the nation to 
inhabit it for ever ; He hath elected the king to rule over it ; and He 
hath elected its saints to assist him in the administration of its affairs. 
The election in all these cases has been " of him that calleth.'" This 
election, however, is not such as " divines " contend for ; nor does it 
relate to the suhjects of luhich they treat. He does not say to this 
man, " I elect you from all eternity to be saved from the flames of 
hell, do what you may ; " nor does he say to that, " I predetermine 
you to reprobation and eternal torture, do what you can." To affirm 
this of God is to blaspheme His name. The scriptures declare, that 
^' He is no respecter of persons ; " that " He has no pleasure in the 

« Gen. xxvi. 29: xxi. 23. i' Horn. ix. 10-13; Mai i. 2, 3. " Numb. xxiv. 19. 



"god's- ELECT." 241 

death of the wicked ; but that the wicked turn from his way, and 
live ; " and that " He is long-saffering, not willing that any should 
perish, but that all should come to repentance."" Such a statement 
as this, is entirely at variance with "t/ieolog^/?" otiose traditions are 
the exhalations of the carnal mind of a fierce and gloomy age. 

God elects saints for His kingdom, not by foregone conclusions 
which are irreversible ; but men are " elect through sanctification of 
spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ."^ This 
reveals to us the means and design of the election in relation to the 
present time. " Sanctification of spirit " is the means ; " obedience 
and sprinkling of Christ's blood," the end. How this is brought 
about is explained in these words — " Ye have purified your souls in 
obeying the truth through the spirit."^ The manner in which men 
are brought to obedience and purification by the sprinkled blood, 
through the spirit, is practically explained in the use of the keys by 
Peter on the day of Pentecost, and at the house of Cornelius. The 
spirit, through the apostle, " convinced men of sin, and righteousress, 
and judgment to come ;" and confirmed his words by the signs which 
accompanied them. They believed and obeyed the truth ; and " in 
obejdng it " were purified from all past sins by faith in the blood of 
sprinkling. Thus, they were " washed, sanctified, and justified by 
the name of the Lord, and by the spirit of God ;" and after 
this manner elected according to His foreknowledge and predeter- 
mination. 

No man need flatter himself that he is one of God's elect, unless 
he believes the gospel of the kingdom and obeys it, and walks in the 
steps of the faith of Abraham. A man then knows, and feels, that 
he is elected ; because God hath said, " He that believes the gospel, 
and is baptized, shall be saved." In the prophecy of Mount Olivet 
the elect are named in connection with the suppression of the Hebrew 
commonwealth. It is there written, " Except those days be shortened, 
there should no flesh be saved " — that is, no Jew should survive — 
" but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened."^ These elect 
were the servants of the Lord in Israel, to whom Jesus had granted 
power to become the sons of God ; as well as the fathers, for whose 
sake Israel is beloved,® and for whose future blessedness and glory 
the nation is preserved. 

This preservation of Israel for the elect's sake is beautifully 
expressed by the prophet, saying, " Thus saith the Lord, as the new 
wine is found in the cluster, and one saith. Destroy it not : for a 
blessing is in it : so will I do for my servants' sake that I may not 
destroy them all. And I will bring forth a Seed out of Jacob, and 
out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains ; and mine elect shall 
inherit it (the land of Canaan), and my servants shall dwell there. 
And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place 
for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought 
me."-'' " God,^^ then, " has not cast away his people Israel, ichom he 
forehneio'' and spoke of to Abraham and Isaac, before they had 

a Acts X. 34 ; Ezek. xxxiii. 11 ; 2 Pet. iii. 9. * 1 Pet. i. 2. ^ 1 Pet. i. 22. 
d Matt. xxiv. 22. « Rom. xi. 21. /Isaiah Ixv. 8, 9. 



242 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

any sons. He has chastised them for their sins ; but " there is 
a remnant according to the election of grace." "The election hath 
obtained the grace, by accepting Jesus as the Seed, and inheritor of 
the land ; and the rest are blinded until this day." But this blindness 
is not permanent. They will yet become a great and mighty nation, 
rejoicing in the service of the Lord Jesus and the elect ; for " blind- 
ness in part has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles 
be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved "" that is, all the twelve 
tribes shall be reunited into one nation and kingdom upon their own 
land, and be received into the favour of God ;^ they wiU then have 
been grafted in again, according to the word of the Lord. 

In conclasion, every thing in relation to the kingdom is ordained 
upon sovereign principles. Nothing is left to the will of man. Hence, 
the apostle saith, " It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that 
runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." The call of the Gentiles 
to take part in the future kingdom is a striking illustration of the 
truth of this. Had things been left to the apostles, they would not 
have extended the invitation to men of other nations to become with 
them heirs of the kingdom of Canaan, and of the dominion of the 
world. They were running to and fro among their own nation, calling 
upon them to become the children of the promise who are counted for 
the seed ; but it was not of their will, but contrary to it, that " the 
word " was preached to the Gentiles, opening the kingdom to them. 
The invitation to our race, as the apostle truly saith, was " of God that 
showeth mercy." 

Pharaoh of Egypt is another illustration of this principle. God 
purposed to show forth His power that His name might be declared 
throughout all the earth. This manifestation was not left to the wisdom 
or pleasure of Moses. The display was to be according to the divine 
will. The world was overspread with ignorance and superstition ; and 
Pharaoh was the autocrat of the age. He was totally ignorant of who 
the Lord was, and therefore refused to obey him. He was " a vessel 
unto dishonour " — an idolater under the dominion of the propensities. 
Had he been left to himseK, he would have continued like all other 
chiefs of the sin-power, " a vessel of wrath fitted for destruction." 
His tyranny had come to this crisis, namely, either the Israelites must 
be exterminated, or the oppressor and his power must be destroyed. 
The judgment in the case belonged to the God of Abraham, of Isaac, 
and of Jacob ; the result could not, therefore, be for a moment doubt- 
ful. He that has power over the clay, had appointed Israel to be "a 
vessel unto honour, '\ upon whom it was his sovereign pleasure to have 
mercy. They were, therefore, "vessels fitted for mercy," whom he had 
before prepared, that on them he might make known the riches of his 
glory, both then and in a time to come. To effect their deliverance 
then ; to punish Pharaoh and his abettors for their tyranny ; and to 
make himself known to the surrounding nations — he stirred up the 
Egyptian king to show all that was in his obdurate and relentless 
nature. Upon this view of the case, he elected Pharaoh and his host, 
to a terrible overthrow ; while he elected Israel to become his people 

a Rom. xi. 2, 5, 7, 8, 25, 26. ^ Ezek. xxxvii. 25-28 : xxxvi. 33-38 : xxxix. 25-29. 



JACOB SUPPLANTS ESAU. 243 

in the land of Canaan. Thus " he had mercy on whom he would 
have mercy, and whom he would he hardened."* 

Such is the doctrine of election as taught in the scriptures of 
truth. Let us return now to the further consideration of the case of 
Esau and Jacob. 

The boys grew to be men. " Esau was an expert hunter, and a 
3 nan of the field." The result of these pursuits was to surround 
himself with warriors, whose power grew into the future kingdom of 
Edom. When he was ninety-one years old, he was able to march 
with four hundred men against Jacob, then on his return from 
Mesopotamia. Bat Jacob was of a more peaceful disposition. " He 
was a plain man, dwelling in tents." While they sojourned with 
their father, Esau was Isaac's favourite ; and Jacob, his mother's. One 
•day while Jacob was preparing a pottage of red lentiles, Esau came 
ia from hunting very much overcome with fatigue. He requested 
Jacob to let him partake of the red lentiles. But Jacob was not 
disposed to part with it without a consideration. Esau was the elder, 
and according to the custom of primogeniture, was entitled to certain 
privileges, termed hirthright. Now Jacob, whose name signifies 
^' supplanter,'' wished to supplant him in this right, that he might 
afterwards be entitled to the precedence over Esau, which God had 
indicated in saying, " The elder shall serve the younger." Therefore, 
before he consented to Esau's request, he said, " Sell me this day thy 
birthright." Esau reflected on the demand a little, at length he said, 
" Behold, I am at the point to die ; what profit shall this birthright 
do to me? " " Swear then," said Jacob, " to me this day : and he 
sware unto him : and sold his birthright to Jacob." Jacob then gave 
him. the red pottage. From this time Esau acquired the surname of 
Edom, which signifies red, and commemorates the fact that " Esau 
despised his birthright."^ 

When Esau was forty years old, he married two Hittite women, 
who were a grief of mind to both his parents. i^bout thirty years 
after this, when Isaac was one hundred and thirty-one, he determined 
to bestow his blessing upon Esau, although he had sold his birthright. 
But the faithful vigilance of Rebekah circumvented it. The elder 
was to serve the younger, and she intended that Isaac's blessing should 
take that direction. Accordingly, in blessing the supposed Esau 
(for his eyes were too dim to see accurately), he said, " God give thee 
of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of 
corn and wine : let people serve thee, and nations how down to thee : 
he lord over thy hrethren, and let thy mother s sons how down to thee : 
cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth 
thee." Here was a blessing, contrary to the will of Isaac, pronounced 
upon Jacob, whom God had predetermined to bless to the same j)ur- 
pose. Truly, "it is not of him that willeth, but of God that showeth 
mercy." 

Esau had fully calculated on the blessing, although he had bartered 
away his birthright, seeing that Isaac had promised to bestow it upon 
him on his return from the field. When, therefore, he entered to 

« Rom. ix. 14-33. ^Gen. xxv. 27-34. 



244 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

receive the blessing, and announced himself as the real Esau, " Isaac 
trembled very exceedingly " when he fonnd that he had been imposed 
upon ; nevertheless, he confirmed what he had done, saying, " Yea, 
and he shall be blessed." AVhen Esau discovered what had happened, 
" he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, saying. Bless me, 
even me, also, my father ! " And he lifted np his voice and wept. 
But the thing that was done could not be revoked, for the hand of 
God was in it. 

The apostle cites the case of Esau as a warning to believers lest 
any of them should " fail of the grace of God.'" All who are 
Abraham's seed by being in Christ have obtained the birthright ; and 
are thereby entitled to the blessing of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 
that hereafter " people should serve them, and nations bow down to 
them ; and that they should be lords over their brethren." But, if 
for some temporal advantage they should " sin wilfully," and thus 
barter it away, " there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a 
certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation, which 
shall devour the adversaries. "'^ There is no scope afforded to sucli 
for repentance ; for they have placed themselves precisely in Esau's 
position. Hence, the apostle exhorted his brethren to look diligently 
to it, that none of them proved to be " a profane person, as Esau, 
who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright : " for," said he, 
" ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the 
blessing, he was rejected : for he found no possibility of a change of 
(Isaac's) mind (ixeravoiag TOTTov ovx £vpe) though he sought it carefully 
with tears. "^ God is merciful ; but He is also jealous ; and "will b}^ 
no means clear the wilful." If His children sell their birthright to 
the world for anything it can tempt them with. His mind, like Isaac's,, 
is immovable ; and transgressors cannot change it, though they may 
seek carefully to do so with tears, and prayers, and with great and 
exceeding bitter cries. 

Jacob having been involuntarily appointed heir of the blessing by 
Isaac, Esau conceived a hatred of him, and was overheard to threaten 
him with death when their father was dead. This de termination 
was reported to Rebekah, who, having sent for Jacob, informed him 
of Esau's malice, and advised him to escape into Mesopotamia, and 
remain awhile with her brother Laban at Haran, until his brother's 
fury should subside. It was necessary, however, to get Isaac's con- 
sent, that no breach might be made between him and Jacob, for Esau 
was his favourite son. Rebekah knew well how to manage this. 
Isaac as well as herself were sorely annoyed by Esau's wives, whose 
demeanour appears to have been very disgusting to them. She com- 
plained to Isaac of the grief they were to her, and declared to him 
that if Jacob were to take a wife from among the daughters of the 
land, her life would be of no value to her. This being also 
Isaac's feeling in the case, he fell into her views immediately ; 
and having called Jacob, he blessed him, and charged him, say- 
ing, " Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan." 
He then directed him to go and take a wife of Laban's family ; 

« Heb. X. 26-37. & Heb. xii. 15-17. 



Jacob's ladder. 245 

and said, " God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and 
multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people: and 
give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy Seed 
with thee ; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a 
stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.'''"' Such was Isaac's 
understanding of the blessing in regard to the time of its accomplish- 
ment. He did not expect it nntil the Seed, or Christ, was manifested ; 
but when he appeared in possession, they, even Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, would be blessed with him. Let us proceed now to the con- 
sideration of 

THE VISION OF JACOB'S LADDER. 

On the night after his departure, while asleep under the canopy 
of heaven, the Lord appeared to him in a dream. In the vision he 
saw, as it were, " a ladder set up on the land, and the top of it reached 
to heaven : and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending 
on it. And the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of 
Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac : the land whereon thou 
liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed : in whom all the families 
of the earth shall be blessed. And behold, I am with thee, and will 
protect thee in all places whither thou goest, and I will bring thee 
again into this land : for I will not leave thee, until I have done that 
which I have spoken to thee of."^ Thus, in the blessing that now 
rested upon Jacob, as well as upon Abraham and Isaac, God 
promised 

1. That at some future time not specified. He would give Jacob 
actual and personal possession of the land he was then lying upon, 
and upon which the town of Bethel stood for ages ; 

2. That he should have a seed, or descendant, in whom all nations 
shonld be blessed ; and, 

3. That Jacob and his seed should have possession of Palestine 
and Syria together — that is, at one and the same time. 

The exact time, I say, was not specified in the promise. Jacob, 
however, was given to understand by the representation in the vision 
that it would be a long time after the epoch of his dream. As the 
apostle says, " he saiu the promises afar off, and was persuaded of 
tliem, and embraced them, and confessed that he was a stranger and 
pilgrim on the land." He saw the fulfilment of the things promised 
afar off in point of time ; but not afar off as to place : for the place 
lohere they were to be fulfilled was Bethel, about fifteen miles from 
Jerusalem. He was at the place ; and so well did he understand this, 
that he termed Bethel " the gate of heaven.' ' 

Now the interval of time between the giving of the promise and 
the fulfilment of it was represented to Jacob by a ladder of extra- 
ordinary length, one end of which stood at Bethel, and the other end 
against the vault of heaven. Here were two points of contact, the 
land of Judah and heaven ; and the connecting medium, the ladder 
between them. This was a most expressive symbol, as wiU be 
perceived by considering the nses to which a ladder is applied. It is 

« Gen. xxviii. 1-4. ?' Gen. xxviii. 4, 10-15 : xxv. U, 23, 28-34 ; Rom. ix. 10-13. 



246 THE THINGS, OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

a contrivance to connect distant points, by wliich. one at the lower end 
may reach, a desired altitude. It is, then, a connecting medium 
between points of distance. Now, if instead of distant localities 
distant epochs be substituted, the ages and generations which connect 
them will sustain a similar relation to the epochs as a ladder to the 
ground on which it rests, and the point of elevation against which it 
leans. The ladder, then, in Jacob's vision was representative of his 
seed in their generations and appointed times. One end of it was in 
his loins ; the other, in the Lord Jesus when he should sit upon his 
throne, reigning over the land upon which Jacob was asleep. 

But upon this ladder of ages and generations, with Jacob at the 
bottom and his seed, the Shiloh, at the top, " the angels of God were 
seen ascending and descending." This represented to him that the 
affairs of his posterity, natural and spiritual, in all their relations with 
the world, would be superintended by the Elohim, who would pass to 
and fro between earth and heaven, in the performance of their work. 
Hence, the apostle styles them, " All ministering spirits, sent forth to 
minister for them who shall inherit salvation. ""^ Israel and the nations 
are under their vicegerency till the Lord Jesus comes to assume the 
sovereignty of the world. When he appears in his kingdom, the land 
of Israel especially wiU be no longer subjected to their superintend- 
ence. The apostle includes Palestine and Syria, when the Hebrew 
commonwealth is reconstituted upon them, in " the future hahit- 
ahle "^ (ttjv oLKoviievr^v rrjv fieXXovaav). When he wrote this, these 
countries were inhabited by Israel under the Mosaic constitution, 
mixed up with, and in subjection to, the Gentiles. 

Under this arrangement their affairs were superintended by the 
angels of God. But with the future habitable it will be different ; 
for, the apostle says, " God hath not put it in subjection to the 
angels : " but " when he brings the first-born back again into the 
habitable (etc rrjv oLKovfxev^v) he says, ' Let all the angels of God do 
homage to him.' " This return of the Lord to the habitable cannot 
be referred to the epoch of his resurrection ; because he had not then 
left it. Indeed he never left it but once before his resurrection, and 
that was involuntarily when Joseph and Mary carried him into Egypt. 
He said himself that he had not been to the Father before rising from 
the dead." He was in the habitable only asleep in death. But 
when he ascended then he departed into a far country to receive the 
kingdom ; and when he had received it, to return. But, he has not 
yet received it, or he would be at this time reigning in the future 
habitable land. Till the Lord Jesus, however, sits on his throne as 
" King of the Jews,""^ the providential direction of human affairs is 
committed to the Elohim ; who are termed the angels of the little 
ones who Relieve in Jesus ;^ because they minister to their profit, ^n 
causing all things among the nations to work together for their 
ultimate good. 

When that remarkable change in the constitution of things is 
brought to pass, when Jesus having received the sovereignty, the 

« Heb. i. 14. ^ Heb. ii. 5. " John xx. 17. <-i John xviii. 33-39 : xix. 12-19. 
<= Matt, xviii. 3-6, 10. 



JESUS AND " THE WORLD TO COME." 247 

angels shall do homage to him, there will be a great national jubilee 
throughout the earth. The nations "which are now groaning under 
the blood-stained tyrannies of the world, and imprecating curses loud 
and deep upon the heads of their destroyers, will send up to heaven a 
shout " like mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia : for the Lord God, 
the Omnipotent reigneth."'^ Paul evidently had a view to this period 
of blessedness, when he quoted the saying, " Worship him all gods." 
He quoted this from the ninety-seventh psalm,'='' which celebrates the 
epoch of the reign in these words : — " The Lord reigneth ; let the 
earth rejoice ; let the multitude of the isles be glad. Clouds and 
darkness are round about him ; righteousness and judgment are the 
habitation of his throne. A fire goeth before him, and burneth up 
his enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world ; the 
earth saw and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence 
of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the lohole earth. The 
heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory. 
Confoanded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves 
in idols : worship him all ye Elohim. Zion heard, and was glad ; 
and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments, O 
Lord. For thou. Lord, art high above all the earth ; thou art exalted 
far above all the Elohim.'' Such will be the manifestation when the 
Father shall bring the Lord Jesus back again to the habitable. At 
present, the Elohim are ascending and descending the ladder, so to 
speak, hetioeen the Lord Jesus, who is at the right hand of the Majesty 
in the heavens, and the earth : but, when " he reigns on Mount 
Zion, and in Jerusalem before his ancients gloriously,"^ heaven and 
the habitable will be one ; and the Elohim will ascend and descend 
upon him. Heaven will then be open to the eyes of his saints, and 
they will behold the wonders of the invisible. For such is the doctrine 
taught by the Lord himself ; who, when Nathaniel recognized him 
as the Son of God, and King of Israel, because he revealed his secret 
actions, said to him, " Tiiou shalt see greater things than these. 
Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending 
and descending upon the Son of Man."" Then will the future habitable 
have been subjected to the Son. 

The ladder of ages and generations, as I have said, connects the 
commencing and terminating epochs of a long period of time. Of 
this interval, about three thousand seven hundred and sixty years have 
elapsed. A few more years only remain, and the top of the ladder 
will be attained by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and by aU others with 
them who shall be accounted worthy of the kingdom of God. They 
will have reached to heaven ; not by flying thither as ghosts upon the 
wings of angels, but by heaven being brought down to earth, when 
the Lord Jesus shall descend in glory. 

Jacob sojourned with his uncle Laban tiuenty years.^ While 
residing in Mesopotamia, eleven sons were born to him. The 
twelfth, named Benjamin, was bom of Rachel, the mother of 

« Rev. xix. 6. ^ Isaiah xxiv. 23. « John i. 51. ^ Gen. sxxi. 38. 
■•• See note page 35. 



248 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

JosepL., at Bethlehem Ephratha, where she died and was buried. 
Now, as Joseph was thirty-nine when Jacob went down into 
Egypt, being at that time a hundred and thirty years old,'^ it follows 
that Jacob was ninety-one when Joseph was born, and seventy-seven 
when he fled to Haran. Mter the birth of Joseph, the angel of 
God appeared to him, and said, " I am the God of Bethel, where 
thou anointedst the pillar, and vowedst a vow "unto me : now, 
arise, get thee out of this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred." 
He obeyed. Having secretly collected together all his substance, he 
fled from Laban, taking up his route "to go to Isaac his father in the 
land of Canaan." Having crossed the Euphrates, he arrived at the 
river Jabbok, which flows into the Jordan about midway between the 
Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Not very far from the confluence of 
these rivers " the angels of God met him," and on this account he 
named the lolace Mahanaim, that is, God's host. Having sent messengers 
to Esau in the land oE Seir to propitiate him, and got over all that he 
had, he remained on the north side alone. It was here that he wrestled 
with one of the angels, who blessed him ; and changed his name from 
Jacob to the more honourable one of Israel, which signifies a prince 
of God. As a memorial of this honour, the angel touched the tendon 
in the hollow of his thigh, and caused it to shrink. So that Jacob 
became lame, " and halted upon his thigh." 

Having crossed the Jabbok to Penuel, and joined his company, he 
had an interview with Esau, who received him with apparent kindness, 
though with evident mistrust on the part of Jacob. A reconciliation 
ensued. Esau accepted a liberal present, and pressed upon Jacob the 
unwelcome protection of his warriors. Jacob, however, persuaded him 
to depart without him ; and he would follow " softl}^, until," said he, 
" I come unto my lord unto Seir." But as soon as Esau was well 
on his way, Jacob pushed on to Succoth. Having halted there 
for a time, he crossed the Jordan, and pitched at Shalem, in the land 
■o£ Canaan. After his sons had taken vengeance upon the city on 
account of Dinah their sister, God appeared to him again, and told 
him to go and dwell at Bethel, and erect an altar there to God, who 
appeared to him when he fled from the face of Esau. The gods of 
Laba.n were still in the possession of his family. In obeying the voice of 
God, therefore, he ordered his household to put them away. This they 
did, and surrendered their ear-rings with them, and Jacob buried gods 
and jewels under an oak near Shechem. 

When he arrived at Bethel, he built the altar as God had told 
him. And God said to him there, "I am God Almighty : be 
fruitful and multiply : a nation and a company of nations shall be of 
thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins : and the land which I 
gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it, and to thy Seed after 
thee will I give the land.''^ In this renewal of the promise, the 
additional idea was revealed to Jacob, that the nation constituted of 
his descendants, would contain a plurality of nations, that is, be a 
national association of t7''ihes. He was to inherit the land with them, 
and with the Seed, or Christ ; and as he knew thej^ were to be 

« Gen. .\ii. 48 : xlv. G : xlvii. 9. J' Gen. xxxv. 12. 



THE PARABLE OF JOSEPH. 249 

oppressed by another nation till four hundred years, after which that 
nation would be judged, and his children would come out with 
great wealth ; this blessing at Bethel reminded him, that he would 
rise from the dead with Abraham, and inherit the land for ever with 
his Seed. Having left Bethel, he journeyed towards Bethlehem, on 
the way to which Rachel died. After her death he spread his 
tent beyond the tower of Edar, on Mount Zion. From thence he 
came to Hebron, where his father Isaac dwelt. Twenty-nine years 
having elapsed after this re-union from Jacob's departure from Laban, 
Isaac died, having attained the age of one hundred and eighty years ; 
and his sons, Esau and Jacob, buried him.'^ 

THE PARABLE OF JOSEPH. 

A parable is the setting forth of a certain thing as a representative 
of something else. Hence, it is a comparison, or similitude. It 
may be spoken, or acted. In the former case, fiction is used to illus- 
trate that which is real ; while in the latter, real actions on a smaller 
scale are representative of remoter and grander events. Whether 
spoken, or acted, parables are dark and unintelligible to those who 
are not skilled in the things of the kingdom ; but when once they 
come to comprehend these, the things they resemble immediately 
appear. To allegorise is to represent truth by comparison. For 
certain features of the kingdom of God to be illustrated parabolically, 
is to speak, or act, allegorically ; and is a mode of instrnction more 
calculated to keep up the attention, and to impress the mind perma- 
nently, than a set discourse, or formal disquisition. The scriptures 
are constructed after this ingenious plan, by which they are made so 
much more interesting, and capable of containing so much more 
matter, than any other book on the same subject, and of the same 
size. They are a study of themselves ; and no *' rules of interpreta- 
tion," or of " logic," are of any value to the understanding of the 
things which they reveal. 

A parable was enacted by Abraham in offering up Isaac. The 
things transacted were real, but they were also parabolic, or figura- 
tive, of something else, even of the sacrifice and resurrection of the 
Seed, or Christ. After the death of Isaac, and when Jacob was 
waxing old, Joseph was selected from among his sons by the arrange- 
ments of God to be the typical representative of the future Seed, 
through whom the promises were to take effect. Hence, the life of 
Joseph became a living parable by which was represented to Jacob 
and his sons, and to behevers afterwards, what was to be transacted 
in the life of Christ. In itself the story of Joseph is an interesting 
and moving history ; but when we read it as though we were reading 
of Christ instead of him, the narration assumes an importance which 
highly commends itself to the student of the word. 

Jacob had resided seventeen years in the land of Canaan after 
leaving Laban. Joseph was then seventeen, and Isaac one hundred 
and sixty-eight. It was, therefore, when Jacob was one hundred 



« G 



en. XXXV. 



260 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

and twenty, and twelve years before the deatk of Isaac, that Joseph 
had his remarkable dreams. These are the first examples on record 
of symbolical prophecy. They represented to Joseph that he should 
be lord over his brethren ; and when repeated to them, they as 
clearly understood them to indicate his supremacy and their subjec- 
tion, as though it had been ever so literally predicted. I mention 
this to show that prophecy by symbols and symbolic action is as 
intelligible as prophecy in the plainest words. 

Joseph was the beloved of his father, and the envied and hated 
of his brethren, whose conduct caused him to give his father an " evil 
report " of them. He dreamed that he and they were binding sheaves 
in the field, and that his sheaf stood upright, and theirs also round 
about, and that they made obeisance to his sheaf. When he told 
them his dream, they caught at the meaning at once. " Shalt thou," 
said they, " indeed reign over us ? or, shaltthou indeed have dominion 
over us ? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for 
his words." In his second dream, " the sun and the moon, and the 
eleven stars, made obeisance to him;" which Jacob interpreted, 
saying, " Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow 
down ourselves to thee to the earth ? And his brethren envied him : 
but his father observed the saying." 

Now in these little incidents we read, not only Joseph's exaltation, 
but the treatment Christ would afterwards receive from the sons of 
Joseph's brethren, and his subsequent exaltation to reign over thenj, 
when Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and his family shall bow down 
before him to the earth. Jesas gave an evil report of his brethren, 
who saw that he was beloved of God ; he troubled them with his 
parables and reproofs ; and they envied him and hated him for his 
words. The fate of Joseph awaited him ; for as the eleven conspired 
against Joseph to kill him, and actually sold him to the Ishmaelites 
of Midian for twenty pieces of silver, so was the Lord Jesus sold for 
thirty, and subjected to a violent death by the rulers, thinking thereby 
to falsify his words, and extinguish his pretensions to lordship over 
them. 

Joseph, having become the property of the Midianitish merchants, 
was " separated from his brethren," and as good as dead to them. 
They lost sight of him entirely, and at length forgot him altogether. 
Their conspiracy to all appearance had perfectly succeeded ; they had 
got rid of " the master of dreams ;" and had imposed upon Jacob 
the falsehood that he had met with a violent death from a savage 
beast. But " God was with him ;" and though they had made every- 
thing sure, their sin was certain to overtake them. 

Joseph was carried into Egypt when he was seventeen years old ; 
and he was thirty-nine when he was made known to his brethren at 
their second inter-view ; hence, he was separate from his father's house 
for twenty-two years. During this time his fortunes were varied, but 
always tending to the promotion of God's purpose through him. The 
work to be accomplished was to plant the Israelites in Egypt, that 
they might be strangers in a land not theirs, and serve them, and be 
afflicted, until the time should arrive for their oppressors to be judged, 



JOSEPH IN EGYPT. - 251 

and their, deliverance effected to the glory of Jehovah's name. God 
works by human instrumentality in the affairs of men. Hence, He 
selected Joseph, as He has since done the Lord Jesus, whom He has 
also " separated from his brethren," to be the honoured agent in the 
developing of His purpose in regard to Israel in relation to their own 
destiny, and the judgment, and subsequent blessedness, of the nations. 

The second chapter of the Josephine parable begins with Joseph 
in the house of Potiphar. Being there the victim of a false accusation, 
he was immured in the State-prison. But even here he found favour, 
as he had in Potiphar's house before ; for Joseph was a righteous 
m.an, and God was with him. He had been in prison tiuo full years, 
when the King of Egypt had his dreams of the hine, and the ears. 
The report of his correct interpretation of the chief butler's, and the 
chief baker's, dreams, while in durance, caused him to be brought 
before Pharaoh to interpret his. It was then believed that " interpre- 
tations belong to God ; "'^ that is, when He causes men to dream 
prophetically. He reserves the interpretation of them to Himself. This 
is illustrated in the case before us, and afterwards in that of Nebu- 
chadnezzar. Pharaoh consulted all the magicians and wise men of 
Egypt, but there was none that could interpret his dreams. But God 
revealed their interpretation to Joseph, who exhibited to the king a 
luminous exposition of them as indications of what God was about to 
do ; and offered him such advice in the emergency as convinced 
Pharaoh that Joseph was "a man in whom the Spirit of God was," 
and that " none were so discreet and wise as he." " Therefore," said 
the king, " thou shalt be over my house, and according unto tliy 
word shall all my people be ruled : only in the throne will I be 
greater than thou." 

When Joseph was thirty-seven years old, the famine began in 
Egypt. It extended to all the surrounding countries, and was sore in 
the land of Canaan. Hearing that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob 
sent " Joseph's ten brethren " to purchase some. Now, Joseph, being- 
governor, was the man who sold the grain. This caused the sons of 
Israel to appear before him ; and, as he had predicted, " they bowed 
themselves before him with their faces to the earth." Joseph knew 
them ; but they did not recognise him. He affected to believe they 
were spies, and put them in ward for three days ; but afterwards 
released them, retaining one as a hostage, for their re-appearance with 
their youngest brother ; and then sent them back loaded with grain 
for their father's house. The harsh treatment they experienced from 
Joseph brought to their recollection the manner they had treated him 
two-and-twenty years before. Their consciences accused them ; and 
not knowing that Joseph understood Hebrew, for he spoke with them 
through an interpreter, they confessed their guilt to one another in 
his presence, saying, " We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in 
that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we 
would not hear ; therefore is this distress come upon us." 

Having visited Egypt a second time, they were introduced into 
Joseph's house, when Simeon was restored to them. On Joseph's 

a Gen. xL 8. 



252 THE THmGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

entrcince, " they bowed down tlieir heads, and made obeisance." They 
were placed at table in regular order, from the eldest to the youngest ; 
and they ate, drank, and were merry with Joseph, still supposing him 
to be an Egyptian. Having departed on their return to Canaan, 
Joseph caused them to be pursued, and brought back under pretence 
of having stolen his drinking cup. At this second interview, Judali 
made supplication for his brethren ; and confessed that God had found 
out the iniquity of himself and brethren ; and that they were now 
fairly the servants of the lord of Pharaoh's kingdom. Judah having 
finished, Joseph could refrain no longer, but wept aloud, and announced 
himseK as their brother, whom they had sold into Egypt. They were 
greatly troubled at his presence ; but he tranquillized their fears, and 
assured them that it was all of God, who had sent him before them into 
Egypt to " preserve them a posterity in the earth, and to save their 
lives by a great deliverance." 

eJacob having received information of all that had been transacted, 
proc3eded to break up his encampment, and to go down into Egypt as 
Joseph and Pharaoh had invited him to do. Isaac had been dead ten 
years, and Jacob had attained the age of one hundred and thirty. 
Having arrived at Beer-sheba on his way thither, he offered sacrifices 
to the God of Isaac. On this occasion, God spake unto him, and said, 
" I am God, the God of thy Father ; fear not to go down into Egypt : 
for I icill there make of thee a great nation : I will go down with thee 
into Egypt ; and I will also surely bring thee up again : and Joseph 
shall put his hand upon thine eyes." In this promise, Jacob was 
re-assured of a resurrection to life. The action of putting the hand 
upon the eyes represents death ; for this was one of the last offices of 
the nearest relations. Hence, to tell Jacob he should die, and yet that 
he should he brought up again, was telling him in effect that he should 
rise from the dead again to possess the land. 

Seventeen years having passed away after his arrival in Egypt, 
the time drew nigh that Jacob must die. This residence in the land 
of Ham had not at all diminished his attachment to the land of Canaan. 
When, therefore, he found his end approaching, he took an oath of 
Joseph, saying, " Bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt : but I will lie 
with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me 
in their burying-place." And Joseph promised to do as he had 
said. But why was Jacob thus anxious ? Surely it could make no 
difference to him where he should crumble into dust ! Nor would it, 
if Jacob had been a faithless Gentile ; or a religionist whose mind 
was perverted by Platonism. He would have cared nothing about 
his body ; all his solicitude would have been about his " immortal 
soul." But in Jacob's death-bed scene, he expressed no anxiety about 
" ids soul ; " all his care was for his body after death, that it might 
be duly deposited in the cave of Machpelah, where Abraham, Isaac, 
Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah, were sleeping." This was equally the 
case with Joseph ; for although Egypt had been the theatre of his 
glory, and he was venerated there as the saviour of the country, in 
which he had also lived ninety-three years, yet his last thoughts were 

« Gen. xlvii. 29-31 : xlijj. 29-33. 



THE MODERNS AND THEIR " IMMORTAL SOULS." 253 

upon the land of Canaan and the disposal of his bones. *' I die," 
said he ; " and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of Egypt 
unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob ; " 
and he took an oath of them, saying, " Ye shall carry up my bones 
from hence." 

Why, I ask, is all mankind's anxiety now about their " souls," 
and a heaven beyond the skies, when the friends of God, who had all 
their pilgrimage been the honoured subjects of His fatherly care, mani- 
fested no such carefulness ; but on the contrary exacted oaths of their 
survivors expressive of their love for Canaan, and of their concern that 
their bodies should moulder there ? The reason is that the moderns 
have no faith in the promises of God. Neither Protestants, nor Papists, 
*' believe on God." They have a system of faith which bears no affinity 
to the religion of God ; and hence they hope for things which He has 
not promised ; and, consequently, the most pious of them die with a 
lie in their right hand. The faith and hope of Protestantism are not 
the faith and hope of " the fathers," whom God has constituted the 
" heirs of the world." 

The last thoughts of these holy men were on " the exceeding 
great and precious promises " which are to be manifested in the 
land of Canaan ; where their posterity will yet become " a great 
and mighty nation " under Shiloh and his saints as the lords of 
Israel and the Gentiles. Seeing this, then, though afar off, lliey 
gave expression to their faith by giving commandment concerning 
their bodies ; as it is written, " By faith Joseph, when he died, 
made mention of the departing of the children of Israel : and gave 
commandment concerning his bones."'' He was, therefore, embalmed, 
and put into a coffin ; and at the end of one hundred and fifty-four 
years his bones were carried out of Egypt by Moses ; they accom- 
panied Israel in all tlieir journeyings through the wilderness ; and 
were finally deposited by Joshua in the cave of Machpelah, where 
his fathers slept.^ When professors believe the truth, they will have 
as much interest in Canaan, and the disposition of their bodies, 
expressive of their faith, as we find testified of Israel and Joseph by 
those who are high in the favour of their God. We must believe the 
promises concerning Canaan, if we would be immortal of body in the 
kingdom of God. 

JACOB'S PROPHECY OF THE LA.ST DAYS, 

Jacob being a hundred and forty-seven years old, and about to 
die, called his sons together to tell them " what should befall them in 
the last days."" From what has been already advanced on " the end of 
the world," the reader will understand to what period the prophecy of 
Jacob principally refers. But, lest any should have forgotten, I will 
repeat, that it relates to events which were to happen in the last days 
of the Hebrew commonwealth, under the constitution from Mount Sinai. 
It sketches the political fortunes of the twelve tribes which, with the 
blessing on Joseph's sons, it now constituted ; touches upon the 

« Heb. si. 22. ^ Gen. 1. 24 ; Exod. xiii. 19 ; Josh. xxiv. 32. 



254 . THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

peculiar features of the several portions of Canaan which should be 
allotted to them ; and reveals certain principal events in connection 
with the tribes of Levi, Judah, and Joseph. 

It will not be necessary for me to do more than to point out these 
special incidents as bearing upon the kingdom of God. After 
Reuben, Simeon and Levi are conjoined in the prophecy. They 
had slain Hamor and Shechem, and all the males of their city. 
This circumstance is taken as a characteristic of their tribes in the 
last days. " Instruments of cruelty," said Jacob, " are in their 
habitations." And foreseeing the part the}^ would play in relation to 
the Seed, he exclaimed, " my soul, come not thou unto their 
secret;'^ unto their assembly,'^- mine honour be not thou united." But 
why not Jacob ? For in their anger they slew a man,^ and in their 
self-will they digged down a wall," that is, overthrew a city.'' "Cursed 
be their anger for it was fierce : and their wrath, for it was cruel." 
The verification of these things will easily be recognised in the history 
of the tribe of Levi at the era of the crucifixion. It was the priests 
who sought and at last accomplished the death of Jesus, to whom 
Jacob refers ; and to mark his sense of their conduct, he said, " I will 
divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel." This was fulfilled 
in giving Levi no cantonal inheritance in the land, and in including 
Simeon's portion within the limits of the canton of Judah.'^ From 
this arrangement, Levi, Simeon, and Judah, became the tribes princi- 
pally concerned in the transactions of the last days. 

Having spoken of the death of Christ by Levi and Simeon, he 
then proceeded to speak of things connected with Judah alone. Of 
this tribe he affirmed, 

1. That Judah should be the praise of all the tribes ; 

2. That it should subdue its enemies ; 

3. That it should rule over all Israel ; 

4. That its sovereignty should be monarchical ; . 

5. That Shiloh should arise out of it as a lawgiver ; 

6. That the gathering of the people should be tO him ; 

7. That he should ride an ass accompanied by its foal ; 

8. That his garments should be dyed with the blood of his 
enemies ; and, 

9. That the fountains and rocks of the country should exuberate 
with grapes and pasture. 

Such are the points into which the members of Jacob's beautiful 
prophecy concerning the things of the Kingdom, in connection with 
Judah as the royal tribe, are resolvable when converted into literal, 
or unfigurative, speech. But, it is very clear from the past history of 
the tribe, that the prophecy is only partially accomplished. Judah is 
now " stooping down, and couching as an old lion " ; and in view of 
his present prostration, Jacob inquired, " Who shall rouse him up ? " 
Yes ; who shall do it ? Who shall start him to his feet again, that 
he may rend and tread down, and devour the enemies of Jerusalem ? 

a Psalm xxii. 16 ; Matt. xxvi. 14. ^ Matt. xxvi. 57, 59. " Gen. xxxiv. 25-29. 

^ Josli. xix. 1,-9. 



Jacob's prophecy of the last days. 255 

Who but the Shiloh, whose goodly horse in the battle Judah is 
appointed to be?^ 

Two appearances of the Shiloh are indicated by Jacob ; first, after 
the departure of the sceptre from Judah ; and secondly, at the attain- 
ment of the tribe to the dignity of giving laws to the gathered people. 
The sceptre had departed from Judah before the appearing of Jesus ; 
but neither Jesus, nor the tribe, have promulgated a code of laws to 
Israel or the Gentiles. Moses was a lawgiver, not of Judah, but of 
Levi ; but when Shiloh comes as the lawgiver of Judah, then " the 
law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from 
Jerusalem. "'^ 

The blessing on Judah contains in it the hope of Israel. It shows 
what views Jacob had of the promises made to him and his fathers. 
His faith was of things substantial and definable. He looked for a 
kingdom and an empire, whose royal domain should be the land of 
Canaan, and especially that part of it allotted to Judah ;° and whose 
imperial ruler shoald be the Giver of Peace, descended from his loins 
in the line of Judah. The Spirit of God in Jacob marked him out 
to wield the sceptre and to give laws to the world, possessing the gate 
of his enemies, and blessing all the nations of the earth. It is 
generally supposed that Jacob saw the sceptre depart from Judah. 
This is implied by the English version, " Not depart until Shiloh 
came," which is as much as to say, when Christ appears it shall 
depart : which is not in accordance with the facts of the case. 

Having blessed Judah in the terms recorded in scripture,"^ he passed 
over Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, and Naphtali, with a brief 
notice, and then dwelt with emphasis upon Joseph. He described in 
general terms the fertility of the cantons of E23hraim and. Manasseh, 
and invocated blessings of every kind upon his posterity. Recalling 
Joseph's history in the past as indicative of his descendants' in the 
future, he predicted that the}^ would be sorely grieved by their enemies, 
and separated from the other tribes. Nevertheless their bow, though 
unstrung, should abide in strength, and they should be made strong 
again " by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob, who should help 
them," and bless them above what their progenitors enjoyed before 
they were carried away into captivit}'-. He saw that they would be 
a royal tribe, and that at some period of their nationality, " the ever- 
lasting hills ' unto their utmost bound, should bow to his sceptre, who 
is destined to rule them.^ 

But in the blessing of Joseph, Jacob gave a very remarkable 
intimation concerning the Shiloh. He styles him " the shepherd and 
stone of Israel,'^f In his blessing on Judah, he foretold his descent 
from him ; but in the blessing of Joseph, he declares he is from the 
God of Jacob, and (being thus spoken of in connection with Joseph) 
after the parable of his history. In other words, that the Seed should 
be both son of Judah and Son of God ; and that his relation to the 
tribes of Israel should be after the representation of Joseph's to his 
brethren. " The archers should sorely grieve him, and shoot at him, 

aZech. X. 3-5 : xii. 6 : xiv. 14. ^ Isaiah ii. 3. « Ezek. xlviii. 8-22. 

'i Gen. xlix. 8-12. ^Hab. iii. 3-16. /Isaiah xxviii. 16. 



256 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

and hate him ; but his bow should abide in strength, and his arms be 
made strong by the God of his fathers, who should help him ; and 
cause all blessings to rest upon his crown, who should be long 
separated from his brethren." 

SUMMARY OF THE FAITH AT JOSEPH'S DEATH. 

After the death of Joseph, which occurred two hundred and seventy- 
six years after the confirmation of the covenant concerning Christ, 
Levi and his sons Kohath, Amram, and Moses, may be regarded as 
the more especial conservators of the faith with which God is pleased. 
Many of Jacob's family in the period which elapsed between the death 
of Joseph and their glorious exodus under Moses, had given themselves 
up to the service of Egypt's gods." This, however, was not the case 
with all. Some still kept the promises of God before them ; and we find 
it testified of Moses when only forty years old, and before he fled from 
Egypt, that " he supposed that his brethren would have understood 
how that God by his hand would deliver them : but they understood 
noty^ This was forty years before their deliverance, and one hundred 
and fourteen years after Joseph's death. Seventy-four years after this 
event Moses was born to Amram the grandson of Levi. The supposi- 
tion he entertained concerning his brethren's spiritual intelligence is 
an indication of his own ; for he evidently judged them by his own 
understanding of the divine promise. 

Although " he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," 
this did not divert him from the faith. He had been indoctrinated 
into this in his tender years by his parents. For, it is testified that 
*' by faith they hid him three months, not being afraid of the king's 
commandments ; "" thus becoming heirs of the righteousness which is 
by faith of the promises. This testimony to their faith shows that, 
however delinquent others might be, "the faith," the one faith of the 
gospel, dwelt in them. They instilled this faith into Moses, on the 
fleshly table of whose heart it was so indelibly inscribed, that not all 
the blandishments of the court of Egypt could efface it. The result 
of the parental instruction he had received was that " by faith when 
he came to years he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's 
daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, 
than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ; esteeming t/ze reproaeh 
of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt ; for he had 
respect to the recompence of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, 
not fearing the wrath of the king ; for he endured^ as seeing him who 
is invisible."'^ 

From this testimony, then, we learn that the faith in Amram's 
family was concerning Christ, and the recompense of the reward : 
that this was so little sympathized with, that those who embraced it 
were subjected to reproach, and called upon to endure on account of 
it ; and that the things connected with Christ were esteeemed by those 
who understood them, as of greater value than the most enlightened, 
wealthy, and powerful of kingdoms, possessed in all its glory. Xow, 

" Josh. XX iv. 14. ^ Acts vii. 25. « Heb.- xi. 7, 23. d Heb. xi. 24-27. 



SUMMARY OF THE FAITH AT JOSEPH's DEATH. 257 

as the faith of Amram's family is the "faith without which it is 
impossible to please God " in any age, it will be of advantage to ns 
to have as distinct a view of it as possible. Omitting, then, the 
general principles of religion, stated on pages 150 and 151 of this 
work, in which all the faithful were instructed ; I shall present in this 
place a summary of the things, which were " all the salvation and all 
the desire " of Abraham's family ; though for a long time " God 
made it not to grow." I shall begin the enumeration with the most 
elementary principle, and ascend to the more complex in the 
order of their development in the promises of God. They believed, 
then, 

1. That a son of Eve would take away the sin and evil of the 
world ; 

2. That until the sin-power should be subdued, there would be 
perpetual strife between his adherents and the partizans of sin ; 

3. That in this war the Son of the woman and his allies would 
suffer much adversity, and be temporarily overcome ; but afterwards, 
■conquer all their foes ; 

4. That Eve's son would descend from Abraham in the line of 
Isaac, Jacob, and Judah ; 

5. That Abraham's descendants in the line of Jacob would become 
" a great and mighty nation ;" and that when this came to pass, 
Abraham's name would be great in all the earth ; 

6. That all nations should be blessed, in a social, ecclesiastical, 
and civil sense, in Abraham and his Seed, whom I shall hereafter term 
Christ ; 

7. That this personage, the hope of Abraham's family, should 
possess the gate of his enemies — that is, gain the victory over 
them ; 

8. That Christ should possess the land of Canaan from the 
Euphrates to the Nile ; that he should possess it " for ever," and 
therefore be immortal ; 

9. That Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob should possess Canaan with 
Christ for ever ; 

10. That Abraham was the constitutional father of nations, and, 
Avith his sons — namely, with Christ and his brethren — the " heir of 
the world," which was memorialized by the change of his name from 
Abram to Abraham ; 

11. That kings would descend from Abraham in the line of Judah, 
-Szc. ; and that, therefore, the twelve tribes would constitute a kingdom 
in the land of Canaan, of which Judah would be the royal 
tribe ; 

12. That through Judah, as the lion of Israel, their enemies should 
be subdued ; 

13. That " the Shepherd and Stone of Israel " would be a Son of 
Judah and Son of God ; and that he would be the Lawgiver and King 
•of all nations to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills ; 



258 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

14. That Christ would be slain by the tribe of Levi after the 
parable of Isaac ; 

15. That as Christ and Abraham are to inherit the land of Canaan 
for ever, they would rise from the dead to possess it ; and that the 
same thing must occur in the case of all others who should inherit 
with them ; 

16. That after his resurrection and exaltation to power and dominion, 
ten tribes of Christ's brethren after the flesh would go down into 
Egypt a second time ; and meeting them there, make himself known 
to them ; receive their humble and sincere submission ; and we may 
add, like another Moses and Joshua in one person, lead them out of 
Egypt and plant them in the land of Canaan ; 

17. That to share in this consummation would be the reward of a 
righteousness counted to those who believed the things promised ; 

18. That every one to whom this righteousness was reckoned must 
be a circumcised person, or otherwise be cut off from his i^eople ; and 
that circumcision was the token of the covenant of promise, and the 
seal of the righteousness by faith. 

In the exposition of the things of the kingdom, as unfolded in 
" the promises made of God to the fathers," the following points have 
been fairly established : 

1. That the territory of the kingdom of Shiloh is not beyond the 
skies, but all the land of Canaan from the Euphrates to the Nile ; and 
from the Gulf of Persia and Red Sea to the Mediterranean ; 

2. That the twelve tribes of Israel are the natural born subjects of 
the kingdom ; 

3. That Christ in the line of Judah is its King ; 

4. That those of like faith and disposition with Abraham, and who 
walk in the steps of his faith, are the joint inheritors with its king ; 
in other words, its aristocracy ; who will share in the glory, honour, 
power, and blessedness, of the kingdom for ever : and, 

5. That all nations will be subject to this kingdom, and constitule- 
its empire. 

These five points, however, do not comprehend all the things con- 
cerning the kingdom of God. Shiloh, or the Anointed One of God, 
was promised in the line of Judah ; but the question remained open 
from Jacob's decease for many centuries after, as to the particular 
family of the tribe of Judah he was to descend from. Besides this, 
there is nothing said respecting the constitution, laws, and ecclesias- 
tical institutions, of the kingdom. It will, therefore, be necessary for 
us to look into these things, that we may fully comprehend the system 
of the world to be established by the God of heaven, when all other 
dominions shall have passed away. 

It may facilitate a clear and distinct conception of the contents of 
this chapter by bringing the dates quoted into a tabular form ; I shall, 
therefore, conclude this part of my subject by presenting the reader 
with the following 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE AGE BEFORE THE LAW. 



259 



Years 
after Flood. 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE AGE BEFORE THE LAW. 



2 Shem begat Arphaxad, and lived afterwards 500 years. 

292 Terah aged 70 ; and Abram born. 

350 Noah died ; Abram 58 years. 

367 Abram leaves Havan, aged 75. 

377 The promise concerning Christ confirmed on the 14th day of Abib at 

even ; Abram 85. 

378 Ishmael born. 

391 Circmncision instituted ; Abraham circumcises all his males. 

392 Isaac born ; Abraham 100 years. Sojourns in the Philistines' land. 
427 Terah dies, aged 205 ; Abraham 135 : leaves Philistia after a residence 

there of 35 years, 
429 Sarah dies at Hetoron, aged 127. 

432 Isaac marries Rebecca ; Abram 140. 

452 Esau and Jacob born ; Isaac 60. 

467 Abram dies, aged 175 ; Jacob 15 years. 

492 Esau marries, aged 40 

502 Shem, or Melchizedec, disappears. Jacob 50 ; Isaac 110. 

529 Jacob leaves Isaac ; sees the Vision of the Ladder : arrives at Laban's, 

aged 77. 
543 Joseph born. 

549 Jacob leaves Laban, having served him 20 years, aged 97. Isaac 157. 

560 Joseph sold into Egypt, aged 17. Jacob 108 years. 

572 Isaac dies, aged 180. Jacob 120. 

582 Second year of the great famine. Jacob 130 ; removes into Egypt ; 

Joseph 39 years. 
599 Jacob dies, aged 147. Joseph, aged 56. 

653 Joseph dies, aged 110 years. From confirmation of covenant 276 years. 

727 Moses born. Aaron 3 years old. 

767 Moses flies from Egypt. 

807 The Israelites return from Egypt 430 years from the confirmation of the 

covenant. Moses 80 vears. 



260 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE GOSPEL IN RELATION TO THE MOSAIC ECONOMY. 

State of Egypt and Israel before the exodus. — The time of the promises arrives. — 
Call of Moses. — God's everlasting memorial.— Moses is sent to Israel. — He is 
accepted as a ruler and deliverer. — He declares glad tidings to them, but they 
refuse to listen. — The Exodus. — Israel baptized into Moses. — The song of 
victory. — They are fed with angels' food. — The Lord's passover. — How to be 
fulfilled in the kingdom of God. — The Lord's supper. — The Twelve Tribes 
constituted the kingdom of God. — The gospel preached to Israel. — They reject 
it. — Of the Rest. — The Royal House of the kingdom. — The sure mercies of 
David. — The kingdom and throne of David. — David's kingdom also God's 
kingdom under its first constitution. — Chronology to the captivity. 

During the one hundred and fifty-four years that elapsed between the 
■death of Joseph and the returning of the Israelites from Egypt, they 
multiplied so much as to excite the apprehensions of the Egyptians. 
" Behold," said Pharaoh, " the people of the children of Israel are more 
and mightier than we : come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest 
they multiply, and it come to pass, that when there falleth out any 
war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get 
■them up out of the land^ 

From this it would seem that the idea prevailed in Pharaoh's 
■court, that the Israelites contemplated a wholesale emigration to some 
other country. His policy, however, was to prevent it, by maintaining 
the numerical superiority of the Egyptians, by destroying their male 
children in the birth, and exhausting them by oppressive toil. But 
what can the policy of kings effect when they undertake to combat 
the purposes of God ? The cup of Egypt's iniquity was well-nigh 
running over. They had not retained God in their thoughts, being 
wholly given up to the basest superstition and idolatry. They had 
forgotten their obligation to God, who had saved their nation by the 
hand of Joseph ; whose posterity they had enslaved, and cruelly 
destroyed. What, then, remained, but that God should judge them ? 
That He, the Lord of all the earth, should step in between the profane 
tyrant, and those whom He purposed to be His people, and give to 
Egypt according to its works ? Israel's four hundred years of affliction 
were accomplished. They had served the oppressor long enough ; 
and the time had' at length arrived, when the nation which had 
reduced them to servitude should be judged, and themselves 
remunerated for their past sufferings and services, by the spoil of their 
adversaries. 

This was a just and equitable decree ; the illustration of which is 
yet to be exhibited on a grander scale, " when God shall set his hand 
again a second time to re'cover the remnant of his people which shall 
be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from 
Khush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from 
the islands of the sea. And when he shall utterly destroy the tongue of 



THE EXODUS A TYPE. 261 

the Egyptian sea (the Red Sea ; ) and with, his mighty wind shall shake 
his hand over the river (Nile,) and shall smite it in the seven streams^ 
and make men (Israel) go over dry shod. And there shall be a high- 
way, for the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria ; 
like as it ivas to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of 
Egypt. ''^ I quote this passage here by way of a hint to the reader, 
that if he would understand how Jehovah will arbitrate between Israel 
and the existing nations when He grafts them in again, he must give 
himself to know the particulars of their deliverance under Moses : for 
the exodus under him is the type, or representation, of their future 
exodus under the Lord of Hosts. 

Bat, spiritually dark as were the Egyptians with all their wisdom, 
the Israelites could boast of little more light than they. The relative 
condition of these two people was very similar to what it is now in 
regard to the Jews and papal nations among whom they are scattered. 
The Jews have a vague idea of the promise made to Abraham, and 
therefore cherish the hope of restoration to Canaan ; but of the name 
of God they are as ignorant as the generation to whom Moses was 
sent. " Who is Yahweh," said Pharaoh, " that I should let Israel 
go? I know not who the T^ord God of Israel is." This is the 
predicament of existing nations. They are called by the name of 
Christ, but as to God's character, they are as ignorant of it as of his 
person. As to Israel of " the fourth generation," we have seen that 
" they understood not " when Moses supposed they would have 
recognized in him their deliverer ; and, when God was about to send 
him for that very purpose forty years after, Moses inquired, what he 
should sa}/ unto them when the elders of Israel should say to him 
" What is his name ? " — The name of him whom he styled the God 
of their fathers.^ Thus, without understanding of the promises, 
ignorant of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and serving the 
gods of Egypt, they differed only from the Egyptians in being the 
oppressed instead of the oppressor, and " beloved for the fathers' sake '^ 
— a type of their present condition, preparatory to their everlasting 
emancipation from the tyranny of as ignorant, but more brutal, 
nations, than themselves. 

Such was the benighted condition into which God's people Israel 
had fallen "when the time of the promises (the end of the four 
hundred years) drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham." But 
though Israel had forgotten them, God had not. They were over- 
whelmed and absorbed in their personal sufferings, which elicited a cry 
of great distress. This was the crisis of their fate. " Their cry came 
up to God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning, 
and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, luith Isaac, and 
with Jacoh. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and had 
respect unto them." 

He sent an angel to deliver them. Moses was tending the flock of 
Jethro, his father-in-law, in the vicinity of Horeb. Seeing a bush on 
fire yet not consumed, he drew near to take a closer view. of it. As 
he approached, the angel addressed him in behalf of the Lord, saying, 

« Isaiah xi. 12, 15, 16. & Exod. iii. 13, 16. 



262 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

" I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, 
and the God of Jacob. I have surely seen the affliction of my people 
who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their task- 
masters ; for I know their sorrow : and I am come down to deliver 
them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of 
that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk 
and honey ; unto the place of the Canaanites, &c. Come now, there- 
fore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth 
m}^ people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."'' Thus, Moses whom 
forty years before they refused, saying, " Who made thee a raler and a 
j udge ? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the 
hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush."^ 

Moses being thus called of God, was first sent to the elders of 
Israel to make proclamation to them of the good news of deliverance 
from Egypt, and of national independence in the land promised to 
their fathers. Moses was not only called and sent, but he was also 
equipped for the work ; and prepared to prove that he was Jehovah's 
ambassador to them and Pharaoh. The Lord knew how incredulous 
they would reasonably be of the validity of Moses' pretensions to the 
high office of his plenipotentiary. They had refused Moses forty years 
before when he was in favour at the court of Egypt ; it was not 
likely, therefore, that they would accept him as a returned exile. 
Hence, something more was wanting than Moses' bare assertion that 
he was the ambassador of God. He was, therefore, endued with 
divine power by the exercise of which his claim to their acceptance 
might be attested. His staff could be turned into a serpent ; his hand 
could become leprous as snow by putting it into his bosom ; and 
water of the Nile spilled upon the ground converted into blood. By 
these three signs given him to perform as his credentials, he was 
assured by the Lord they would recognize him. He was to execute 
them in their presence, *' that they might believe that the Lord God 
of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the 
God of Jacob, had appeared unto him. And I will be with thy 
mouth," said God, " and teach thee what thou shalt say." " I have 
made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy 
prophet."" 

Having received his appointment after this manner, he was com- 
manded to go and introduce himself to the elders of Israel in his 
new capacity. He was ordered to say to them, " The Lord God of 
your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God 
of Jacob, hath sent me unto you : this is my name for ever, and this 
is my memorial unto all generations. This, the Lord God, hath 
appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that 
which is done to you in Egypt ; and I have said, I will bring you up 
out of the affliction in Egypt'^ into the land of the Canaanites, &c. ; 
into a land flowing with milk and honey."'' 

In obedience to the voice of God, Moses presented himself before 
the elders of Israel, accompanied by his prophet. He announced 

« Exod. iii. 2, 6-10. i Acts vii. 35. « Ex. vii. 1. 

d Gen. XV. 13, 14, 16. ^ Exod. iii. 15-17. 



" CALLED AND SENT OF GOD." 263 

himself as tlie messenger of God, and laid before them his " memorial 
unto all generations.''' As I have shown on page 212, this memorial, 
which is God's name for ever, reveals the resurrection of Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob, the last of whom had then been dead two hundred 
and eight j^ears. This was an important announcement, and amounted 
to this, " /, Moses, am sent to you hy the God of your fathers, loho are 
to rise again.'' This was a startling declaration for a fugitive from 
Egyptian vengeance, and a Midianitish shepherd to make to a whole 
people. I am " called and sent " of Him, who is the God of the living, 
and hath appeared unto me, to inform you that He hath come down to 
deliver you by my hand from your grievous bondage in this countrj^ 
of the Nile. 

This was as astounding a pretension as that of the " ministers " 
and " clergy " of this time, who also claim to be " called of God as 
Aaron was," and to be sent with the word of the Lord to the people 
as His ambassadors ! The important difference, however, in the case 
is, that God attested the truth of Moses' pretensions, but does not 
confirm theirs. Clerical and ministerial ambassadorship rests upon 
their own word, and is predicated upon a feeling which no one can 
perceive but themselves. It is assertion without proof ; and until 
they can adduce credentials divinely attested as in all other cases 
of real appointments in scripture, if they are not set down at 
once as impostors (which would be quite justifiable after waiting for 
credentials many centuries) mankind are at all events under no obliga- 
tion to attend to the word they profess to have received. 

When Moses received his commission, he objected to go to Israel, 
for, said he " They will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice : for 
they will say. The Lord hath not appeared unto thee." It was then 
the Lord empowered him to work the first sign ; and if that did not 
convince them, then the second ; but if still incredulous, afterwards 
the third ; which would be irresistible. Now, when through Aaron 
he had spoken all the words commanded, " he did the signs in the 
sight of the people." If they had believed his simple word, the 
signs would not have been given ; but as they were all given, it is 
evident that they did not believe his bare assertion. When they saw 
the wonders, however, they came to the conclusion of Nicodemus in 
relation to " the prophet like unto Moses," that he was a person 
" sent from God, for no man could do the miracles he did except God 
were with him ;"^ as it is written, " And he did the signs in the sight 
of the people, and they believed that the Lord had visited the children 
of Israel, and that he had looked apon their affliction."^ 

Being accepted as a ruler and a deliverer, he and his prophet, 
accompanied by the elders of Israel, presented themselves before 
Pharaoh. Moses announced himself as the bearer of a message to 
him from the Lord God of Israel, saying, " Let my people go, that 
they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness." This demand 
astonished Pharaoh exceedingly. " Who," said he, " is the Lord, 
that I should obe}^ his voice to let Israel go ? I know not the Lord, 
neither will I let Israel go. Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, 

o John iii. 2. ^ Exod. iv. 31. 



264 TIIE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

hinder the people from their works ? Get you to your burdens." The 
only effect of this application was to double their toil, and to cause 
the officers of Israel to be beaten, because they were not successful in 
extorting from their brethren what was impossible. They remon- 
strated with the tyrant, but to no other purpose than to be" spurned 
from his presence as idle fellows. They perceived that they were in 
an evil and desperate case ; and as their condition was worse since 
Moses came among them, they looked on him as the cause of all the 
aggravated evil that had befallen them. Moses, indeed, could not deny 
it. He had nothing to say in extenuation ; but in his extremity 
returned to expostulate with the Lord. " Wherefore," said he, " Lord, 
hast thou so evil-entreated this people ? Why is it that thou hast 
sent me ? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he 
hath done evil to this people ; neither hast thou delivered thy 
people at all."" 

After this manner, being made to feel the need of deliverance, 
Moses was sent again to them with glad tidings of a sure and speedy 
redemption. In communicating it to Moses, the Lord prefaced the 
message with a reiteration of the memorial. "I am the Lord," said 
He ; " and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by 
the name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah (Re loho shall 
be/ was I not known unto them. And I have also established my 
covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their 
pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. And I have also heard the 
groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in 
bondage : and I have rememhered my covenant. 

Such was the preamble. The God of Abraham was about to hegin 
the fulfilment of the covenant in that part of it which related to " the 
fourth generation " of the natural seed. He was therefore in relation 
to Israel about to become known as the performer of His word. 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew Him as Almighty ; but as they had 
died without receiving the promises covenanted, they knew Him not 
as Jehovah : yet as Jehovah is now the name of Abraham's God unto 
all generations, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will know Him as set forth 
in His memorial, when they rise from the dead. He will then be 
Jehovah to them. 

Because, then, after nearly 430 years from its confirmation, God 
had remembered His covenant. He said to Moses, " Say unto the 
children of Israel, I am Jehovah, and I will bring you out from 
under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their 
bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with 
great judgments : and I will take you to me for a jjeople, and I will 
be to you a God : and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, 
who bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 
And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did 
swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob ; and I will give 
it you for a heritage : I am Jehovah." According to all these words 
Moses spoke to them, " but they hearkened not to him, for anguish of 
spirit, and for cruel bondage." 

« Exod. V. 22. ^ Isaiah xlii. 8, 9. 



ISRAEL god's first-born SON. 265 

After this the judgments of God fell fast and heavy upon Pharaoh 
and the Egyptians, until at length they rose and thrust the Israelites 
out of Egypt. The record of this event is thus given by Moses. 
" Now the returning (vemuseb) of the children of Israel who dwelt 
in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass, at 
the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the self-same day it 
came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of 
Egypt. It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord, for bringing 
them out from the land of Egypt : this is that night of the Lord to 
be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations."" The 
period here indicated was 430 years from the confirmation of the 
covenant now remembered of God, which occurred on the 14th of 
Abib, or Nisan, at even ; the month when the Jewish year and 
calendar begin,^ answering to the latter half of March and the 
former part of April. 

The terrible display of power by the hand of Moses, while it filled 
the minds of the Egyptians with dismay, convinced Israel at length 
that God was able and wilhng to perform what He had covenanted to 
do. He had said to Pharaoh, " Israel is my son even my first-born ; 
therefore, let my son go, that he may serve me ; and if thou refuse to 
let him go, behold, I will slay thy son eyen thy first-born." This 
threat had a-t length been carried into execution ; and " there was not 
a house in Egypt where there was not one dead." First-born for 
first-born : if Pharaoh destroyed God's first-born, God would retaliate 
upon him, and not spare his. Let the reader mark the style here. 
"Israel is my son, my first-born." What does this import? Did 
not God tell Abraham, that he had constituted him a father of many 
nations ? Then these nations are in effect his sons ; for a father 
implies sons. But of this family of nation-sons which of them is the 
first-born son ? The testimony before us declares that Israel is. The 
nation of Israel then is the heir, and nearest to the throne in the 
empire of the world. But it is now, and will be for a few more 
years, as it was in the days of Pharaoh, Israel God's first-born is 
scattered, oppressed, and destroyed, by the t3^rants of the nations, and 
a subject of reproach among the people. But the sentence of God 
is still unrepealed ; and at a coming crisis, he says to the Autocrat, 
" Let my son, Israel, go that he may serve me ; and if thou refuse, I 
will slay thy son, even thy first-born." When the events in Egypt 
shall be re-enacted in the latter day, " a nation," even Israel, " shall 
be born in a day ; " and other nations will soon after follow him in a 
birth into Christ and the political family of x^braham. When this 
comes to pass, all the nations of the earth will be Abraham's sons and 
rejoice in Israel their elder brother. 

But, when Israel was brought to the birth, and stood trembling on 
the shore of the Red Sea, they were about to be introduced into 
Moses. They had been begotten of God as His national first-born ; 
but were they to be born of water into the everlasting possession of 
Canaan ; or into a possession in which they were only " strangers and 
sojourners" in the land ? That would depend upon the question of 

« Exod. xii. 40-42. ^ Exod. xii. 2. 



266 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

their national baptism into Moses, or into Christ : if into Moses, they 
could only inherit according to his law ; but if into Christ, then they 
would obtain an everlasting national possession of the land, of which 
no other nation, or confederacy of nations, could deprive them. But 
they could not be nationally baptised into Christ, for Christ had not 
come ; and until he came, and as the mediator of the New Covenant, 
suffered death, neither individual nor nation could have everlasting 
inheritance in the land ; for the covenant was of no force while the 
mediator was alive. 

But there is an end of all question in the case. The apostle in 
reference to the passage of the Red Sea, writes, " I would not that ye 
should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, 
and all passed through the sea ; and were all baptised into Moses 
(eig Tov M(x)(Tr)v) in the cloud and in the sea*^ {ev rr) vecpeXrj and ev tt] 
OaXaaar]).'" This was the national baptism. An entire obscuration of 
a whole nation from the view of all beholders on either shore. It 
was buried, not in the sea only, but in the cloud and in the sea — a 
cloud, which was black with darkness to the Egyptians, but light to 
Israel between the icy walls of the sea. But, though buried, the 
nation rose again to a new life upon the opposite shore, leaving all 
their tyrant taskmasters, and all their bondage behind them, washed 
away by the returning waters of the deep. First, then, believing in 
Moses and in the Lord, they were baptised into Moses, and so " saved 
that day out of the hands of the Egyptians," who were washed up 
*' dead upon the sea-shore."'' 

In celebration of this great deliverance, they sang the song of Moses. 
What a thrilling incident was this ! Six hundred thousand men, 
besides women, children, and a mixed multitude, encamped upon the 
shore, and singing the song of the Lord's victory over their enemies ! 
After magnifying the gloriousness of His power, and the great sal- 
vation with which He had delivered them, they rejoiced in the future 
that awaited their nation, when it should realise the possession of the 
land of Canaan under the sceptre of Sliiloh '* for ever and ever." 
" Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine 
inheritance ; in the place, Lord, which thou hast made for thee to 
dwell in ; in the sanctuary, Lord, which thy hands have established. 
The Lord shall reign for ever and ever."" 

Let the reader peruse the song of Moses, and bear in mind that it 
is not only a magnification of the past, but also prophetic of as great, 
or a greater, deliverance of the nation under Shiloh. Under Moses, 
they were saved by the angel of God;'' but when the time of the 
second exodus from Egypt arrives, they will be saved by the Lamb 
of God, whose prowess will be applauded by God's harpists of the 
crystal sea, who will sing the new song of Moses, the servant of God, 
and the song of the Lamb, saying, " Great and marvellous are thy 
works. Lord God Almighty ; just and true are thy ways, thou King of 
saints. Who shall not fear thee, Lord, and glorify thy name ? for 
thou only art holy ; for all nations shall come and ivorship before thee ; 

« 1 Cor. X. i. 2. ^ Exod. xiv. 26, 31. « Exod. xv. 17, 18. 
d Exod. xiv. la 



THE SONG OF MOSES AND THE SONG OF THE I-AMB. 267 

for thy judgments are made manifest."" The song of Moses, we have 
vseen, celebrated the overthrow of the Egyptians ; the song of the 
Lamb, " the prophet hke unto Moses," will celebrate his future 
triumph over all the nations in his deliverance of the twelve tribes 
from their tyranny ; a redemption which will result in the submission 
of all nations to his sovereignty, as predicted in the song. And it is 
to be observed that the Lamb's victory, being the accomplishment 
of the prophecy in Moses' song, and a victory gained on a similar 
occasion, and in connection with the same nation, the Lamb's song- 
is styled in the Apocalypse, " the song of Moses ayid the song of 
the Lamb." 

The generations of Israel's nation are reckoned from Abraham. 
Between seven of them there is a remarkable relationship in tlie way 
•of type and antitype. These are the fourth, the fifth, the fourteenth, 
the fifteenth, the thirty-second, the forty-second, and, possibly, the 
rising generation of the present time. The events of the fourth 
occurred under Moses ; of the fifth, under Joshua ; of the fourteenth, 
under David ; of the fifteenth, under Solomon ; of the thirty-second, 
under Zorobabel ; of the forty-second, under Christ ; and of the last, 
the substance of all that have preceded it, and as yet in the unde- 
veloped, but not unrevealed future. The six generations present so 
many pictures, as it were, of what will be transacted in the seventh. 
But want of space forbids more than an allusion to the fact. Referring 
to the remarkable incidents of Jewish history, the apostle says, " All 
these things happened unto them for types {tvttoi, representative tilings) : 
and they are written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the 
ages (ra reXr] nop aiojyojy) are come." 

Having been baptized into Moses, they looked to him for meat and 
drink. The angel had brought them out by his hand into a waste 
and howling wilderness, under a promise to give them a land flowing 
with milk and honey. But after three days the nation found itself 
without water ; and thoagh soon after they found some, it was so 
bitter they could not drink it. And they murmured against Moses. 
The Lord heard them, and healed the waters. A month after their 
departure from Egypt, their provision failed them. Again they 
murmured against Moses and His prophet ; and turned back in their 
hearts to the land of their afiliction. But God heard them, and gave 
them bread and meat to the full, and continued to them this sustenance 
for forty years, until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan. 

One would have supposed that after giving them bread from 
heaven, all their murmurings would have ceased. But when they came 
to Rephidim and found no water the^^ murmured again, and were ready 
*to stone Moses, and tempted God, saying, " Is the Lord among us, or 
not ? " Though the manna still fell, the rebellious-hearted Israelites 
questioned the presence of the Lord among them ! Though tempted. 
He still bore with them. He commanded Moses to go to the rock in 
Horeb, on the top of which he would take his stand. He was then to 
smite it before their eyes, that it might give forth water. And Moses 
•did so ; and the place was called Massah, and Meribah (Temptation, 

« Rev. xiv. 1-5 : xv. 2-4. 



268 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

and Strife) — Ex. xvii. On a later occasion, at Kadesh. (Num. xx.), God 
commanded Moses to speak to the rock. But, having convened the 
assembly, he addressed them, saying, " Hear now, ye rebels ; must we 
fetch you v^ater out of this rock ? And he smote the rock twice ; and 
the vs^ater came out abundantly, and they drank."" In this Moses 
exceeded his commission ; therefore the Lord said, " Because ye 
believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel^ 
therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I 
haA^e given them." 

These incidents had a secondary import which is found in the 
antitypes of the forty -second generation. Thousands of Israelites- 
and Gentiles believed the gospel of the Kingdom, and were baptised 
into Christ. As a whole they constituted " a holy nation " — a nation 
within the nation — which fed upon the true bread of heaven, and 
drank of the water of life by faith in the things of Christ. But they 
were and are still strangers and sojourners in the world, which to 
them is like the wilderness of Arabia to Israel of the fourth generation. 
But there have been multitudes in Christ, as there were in Moses, who 
did run well but were afterwards hindered. They turned back in 
their hearts to Egypt, loving the present world, and not having faith 
enoagh to get the mastery over it. Now, the apostle likens such to 
those of the fourth generation who were murmurers, and faithless, 
and whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, from which they will never 
arise to enter the land of Israel under Shiloh. " They did all eat the 
same spiritual meat," says he ; " and did all drink the same spiritual 
drink ; for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them : and 
that rock was (or represented) Christ. But with many of them God 
was not well pleased ; for they were overthrown in the wilderness." 
Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust 
after evil things, as they also lusted."^ Their faith was addressed 
through sensible objects ; ours through written testimony. But for 
the most part professors look not beyond " the things which are seen 
and temporal." Whether in Moses, or professedly in Christ, they 
are mere creatures of sensation, who walk by sight and not by 
faith. Let us, reader, not be of this number ; but let us rejoice 
in hope of the promise made to the fathers, though at present it 
seemeth not to the eye of sense to grow. "If a man eat of this 
bread (the spiritual) he shall live for ever ; " and, drinking of the 
blood of Christ, which is the spiritual drink represented by Horeb's 
stream, the rock of Israel will raise him up at the last day to life in 
the age to come. But, if after their example, we love the present 
world, though we may have believed and obeyed the truth in the 
beginning, we shall come under the sentence of exclusion from " the 
rest which remains for the people of God." 

THE LORD'S PASSOVER. 
On the tenth day of Abib, the first month of the year, being 430 
from the confirmation of the covenant, the Israelites were commanded 
to put up a lamb for each house, and to kill it upon the fourteenth 

« Num. XX. 10, 12, 24 ; Exod. xv-ii. C. ^ 1 Cor. x. 3-6. 



THE lord's PASSOVER. 269 

day in the evening. They were to take its blood and to sprinkle it 
upon the door-posts of their houses, and to eat its flesh that same 
night, roast with fire, with unleavened bread, and bitter herbs. Nothing 
of it was to be left till morning. They were also to eat it in haste, 
as if about to hurry off upon a journey. The meaning of this was, 
that God was about to destroy the first-born of every family in Egypt, 
which would cause them to be thrust out of Egypt with great haste ; 
and that when the destroying angel should see the blood on the door- 
posts, he would pass over that house, and not destroy the first-born 
there. For this cause the lamb was termed the Lord's Passover.^ Not 
a bone of it was to be broken. No stranger, foreigner, hired person, 
or uncircumcised individual, was to eat of it ; a servant, however, 
bought with the money of an Israelite, provided he were circumcised, 
was permitted to partake of it. 

But this institution represented more than the facts upon which it 
was founded. It pointed to events of the forty-second, and present (?) 
generations of Israel. The apostle styles Christ the believer's pass- 
over, who was sacrificed for them ; ^ and exhorts them to " keep the 
feast with the unleavened bread of sincerit}^ and truth." Jesus was 
the Lamb of the feast whom God had provided. Not a bone of him 
was broken. His blood was sprinkled, not upon the door-posts of 
houses, but upon the doors of believers' hearts by faith in the blood 
of sprinkling. None can eat his flesh, if they would, but those 
who are circumcised in heart ; for to eat his flesh is to digest, and 
make a part of our mental selves, the truth concerning the kingdom 
of God and Jesus Christ. This is the spiritual food upon which the 
believer's spiritual existence is sustained. As Jehovah's first-born son 
was saved by the blood of the passover lamb in Egypt, so also is the 
believer in the kingdom saved by the blood of Christ ; so that when 
the day of retribution comes, and the first-born of all the nations, 
" who know not God and obey not the gospel," are destroyed, the angel 
of death will pass over him, and he shall not be harmed. 

But while the passover hath this spiritual signification, it also 
represents facts, or events, which will be made manifest in connection 
with Israel at the appearing of their king in glory. This is evident, 
from the saying of Christ while partaking of the Passover with his 
apostles, the future sovereigns of the tribes. " With desire," said he, 
" I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer : for I 
say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it he fidfilled in 
the kingdom of God;'' and "I will noc; drink of the fruit of the 
vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.'' And of this kingdom, 
he said, " I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed 
unto me ; that ye may eat and dri^ik at my tahle in my kingdom, and 
sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."'^ From this, then, 
it is clear, that the passover was prophetic of what is to be fulfilled 
in the kingdom of God. Has that kingdom come ? If it have, as 
some very erroneously affirm, then Christ has eaten another passover, 
and has again drank of wine with his apostles ; for he said he would 
do so when the kingdom had come. But no man in his senses will 

«Exod. xii. i 1 Cor. v. 7. « Luke xxii. 15, 16, 18, 29, 30 ; Matt. xix. 28. 



270 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

afl&rm this. Another passover could not be celebrated till a year 
after ; so that Jesus could not eat it with his disciples before that. 
Where is the testimony to his eating it with them then ? There is 
none ; but much of a contrary nature every way. The gracious 
declaration of Jesus is, I will eat of this passover, and drink of the 
fruit of the vine, with you in the kingdom of God when it shall he 
come. He did not say, lohen you shall go to the kingdom beyond the 
skies, but when the kingdom shall come, which he had taught them to 
pray for. 

It is perfectly ridiculous to talk about the kingdom having come, 
and of the apostles being on their thrones. To affirm this proves that 
the professor is totally ignorant of the gospel. A pretty sitting upon 
thrones it was, when they were all arraigned at the bar, condemned, 
imprisoned, and scourged, for preaching the gospel of the kingdom 
in the name of Jesus ! What havoc the apostacy has made with the 
truth ! The gospel preaches no such stuff as this. It treats of a king- 
dom which the God of heaven shall set upin Judea ; which shall never 
be removed from thence ; in which the whole twelve tribes shall 
rejoice ; which the saints of all ages shall possess ; and which shall 
rule over all. Its elements at present are all scattered. It is not a 
matter of fact ; but a thing of hope, in which only they rejoice who 
believe the promises made of God to the fathers. 

The passover must be restored before it can be eaten of by Christ 
and his apostles in the kingdom of God. This is one of the things 
to be re-established at " the restitution of all things ; " and the law 
of its restoration is in the following words : "In the first month, in 
the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the passover, a fast 
of seven days ; unleavened bread shall be eaten. And upon that 
day shall (Messiah) the Prince prepare for himself and for all the 
people of the land a bullock for a sin-offering."" This was spoken 
by the prophet to Israel of the fourteenth generation concerning the 
observance of the passover by Israel of the generation contemporary 
with the " restoration of the kingdom again to Israel " when it 
should be constituted under the Prince. Moses' law said all about 
the observance of the passover before the Prince appeared ; but as 
Moses ceased to be the lawgiver when he came, a New Code is 
revealed through Ezekiel which will become the law of the kingdom 
under Shiloh. When Ezekiel's passover is observed at Jerusalem, 
Christ will be there, the apostles also, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 
and all the prophets, and many from the four winds of heaven, — all 
of them the first-born redeemed from the earth, saved by the sprinkled 
blood of the true paschal Lamb of God, and who shall find themselves 
in Canaan as inheritors of its attributes ; celebrating their own 
redemption, and the overthrow of all their enemies by the Lord 
Jesus at his revelation in flaming fire, attended by the angels of his 
power. 

The bread and wine of " the Lord's Supper " are the remains of 
the passover, which are to be shared by the circumcised of heart and 
ears, until Christ comes in power and great glory. I am informed by 

« Ezek. xlv. 21, 22. 



THE lord's supper. 271 

a Jew, that when they eat the passover they eat no lamb, but have a 
dry bone of one on a dish ; and that all who celebrate take hold of the 
lip of the dish, and unitedly offer a petition. This is remarkable. 
They have slain the true Lamb, which believers of the gospel feed 
upon : while only a dry bone remains to them, strikingly illustrative 
of themselves. Faith in the Lamb of God supplies the absence of the 
lamb in the Lord's Supper. The broken bread and poured-out wine 
memorialize his sacrifice for believers ; and the testimony, " This do 
in remembrance of me until I come,^^ keeps alive the hope of his 
appearing in the kingdom of God. When hope becomes a reality, the 
supper will give place to the passover ; for when Christ is come, the 
memorial of his coming ceases to be prophetic of the event. 

THE TWELVE TRIBES CONSTITUTED THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

The Israelites being born into national existence under Moses as a 
ruler and a deliverer, he led them from the Red Sea to the foot of 
Mount Sinai to meet with God. On their arrival there, the Lord 
commanded Moses to say to them, " Ye have seen what I did to the 
Egyptians ; now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep 
my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar trea.sure unto me above all 
people : for all the earth is mine : and ye shall be unto me a kingdom, 
of priests and a holy nation^^ This was an offer on the part of God 
to become their King, predicated upon what He had done for them. 
If they closed in with the proposal, they would henceforth be a 
kingdom. Hitherto they had been a crowd of slaves subject to the 
will of the kings of Egypt. But He proposed to organize them ; to 
give them a constitution, religion, and laws ; to appoint them a 
government ; to exalt them by His instructions to the freedom, 
independence, and moral excellence, which are attainable only by the 
influence of divine truth ; to make them the envy and admiration of 
surrounding nations ; to make them, in short, His kingdom, and His 
beioved nation. This was a proposal rich with blessings. All God 
would require of them was obedience, and adhesion to the covenant 
He had made with their fathers. The terms of the compact were 
highly eligible. No nation had received such a liberal and honourable 
proposal before, or since. Would they accept it, and abide by it ? 
Moses was sent to see. 

Having arrived at the encampment, he convened the elders of the 
people, and laid the proposition before them. Having consulted the 
nation, they returned answer to Moses, saying, "All that the Lord 
hath spoken we will do." Upon this, Moses returned the words of 
the people to the Lord. In this transaction a formal agreement was 
entered into between Israel and the Lord. In the word they sent 
back by Moses, they accepted the Lord as their King, and became 
His sulDJects, or "" the children of his kingdom." The relation of 
God to the tribes as their king is undoubted ; for when they demanded 
a visible king like other nations, the Lord told Samuel that they had 

a Exod. xix. 3-6. 



272 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD, 

not rejected him, but the Lord Himself, whose representative among 
them he was. 

By this political compact, Abraham's natural seed became " the 
KINGDOM OF GoD." It was the first, and the only kingdom, He has 
ever had among the sons of men. He will yet have other kingdoms. 
All the kingdoms of the world will become His ; and will yet acknow- 
ledge the king He has provided to rule over them." But even then, 
the kingdom founded at the beginning of the ages, the kingdom o-t' 
Israel, will be His *' peculiar treasure above them all." If, then, we 
would understand " the things of the kingdom of God," we must never 
lose sight of Israel in connection with the kingdom. Indeed without 
them there is no kingdom of God ; and to affirm the contrary is to 
believe in a kingdom over which there is no nation to rule ! No mis- 
conduct of Israel can dissolve the covenant entered into between 
them and God. The rebellion of a nation does not do away with the 
rights of the king. If they set his laws and government at defiance 
it becomes a question of might. If the rebellion triumph the king 
is dethroned ; but if the rights of the throne prevail, the rebel nation 
has no alternative but to submit to whatever terms the conqueror may 
prescribe. 

This is precisely the state of things between God and Israel. The 
tribes have rebelled against Him. He has anointed Jesus of Nazareth 
10 be King of the Jews. But they say. No good thing ever came out 
of Nazareth, and they will not have him for their king. They have 
jio other king, they say, but Csesar ; hence, they crucified Jesus, and 
liave served Caesar ever since. But has God surrendered His rights ? 
Will He allow Himself to be dethroned by rebels, and His Viceroy to 
be treated as a malefactor ? All who deny the restoration of Israel in 
effect say, " They have rebelled successfully against God and His 
Christ." But this camiot be. God will restore them " for His name's 
sake." He will plant them in Canaan ; settle them in the land according 
to their old estates ; and place Jesus upon David's throne in triumph : 
for He has sworn that " at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, 
and every tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the 
Father."^ The great rebellion will then be suppressed ; God will have 
recovered His rights ; His kingdom will be re-established ; and Israel 
will thenceforth "obey His voice, and keep His covenant," as they 
originally agreed to do. 

The nation being adopted as the kingdom of God, and having 
received its constitution three days afterwards, which was fifty days 
from its redemption as Jehovah's first-born of nations ; and also 
having received its religion, and civil laws, as related in Exodus and 
Leviticus — all things were prepared for transferring the tribes from 
the wilderness to the land of Canaan. Moses had announced to them 
this consummation while groaning in Egypt. But they hearkened not 
for anguish of spirit. When, however, they were "baptised into Moses 
in the cloud and in the sea," they came to believe on the Lord and in 
him as His servant. But their probation in the wilderness was too 
much for their faith. They were continuall}^ turning back in their 

«Rev. xi. ]5. t Phil, ii, 9-11. 



THE SPIES AND THE FORTY DAYS. 273 

hearts to Egypt. The time, however, had now arrived to put this 
fourth generation to a final test. 

Twelve principal men, one for each tribe, were sent from the 
wilderness in Paran to view the land of Canaan, and to bring back a 
report to the people. After an absence of forty days they returned. 
They said the land was all that could be desired, and flowing, indeed, 
with milk and honey ; but as to being able to take possession of the 
country, that was impossible ; for the inhabitants were gigantic and 
strong, living in well-fortified cities, and could not be overcome by 
Israel, who were but as grasshoppers when compared to them. But Caleb 
and Joshua, who believed on God, testified to the contrary ; and 
encouraged the people to go up at once, and possess it ; for they were 
well able to overcome it. " The land," said they, " which we passed 
through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord dehght 
in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us ; a land which 
floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, 
neither fear ye the people of the land ; for they are bread for us ; 
their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us : fear 
them not."'' 

Now, when all the people heard the evil report, they cried and 
wept all night. They murmured against Moses, and wished they had 
died in Egypt, or the wilderness, before they had been brought into 
this extremity. They proposed, at length, to make a captain, and 
march back into Egypt. As for Caleb and Joshua, they bade stone them 
to death. 

The reader's attention is particularly requested to this passage of 
Jewish history. The apostle in commenting upon these incidents, 
says that the gospel loas 'preached to them on this occasion; and 
that the land spied out was connected with God's rest. His words are 
these — '' They could not enter into his rest because of unbelief : " 
then addressing his brethren, he says, " Let us therefore fear, lest a 
promise being left of entering into his rest, any of you should seem 
to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as 
unto them; but the word preached did not profit them, not being 
mixed vnth faith in them that heard it."^ In the context of this 
passage the apostle had been speaking of Moses and Christ, the 
former, as a faithful servant in another's house ; and the latter as a 
son over His house : whose house the believers in the things 
spoken of the land are, " if they hold fast the confidence and 
rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." He then introduces the 
case of the fourth generation as a warning of the fatal consequences 
of letting go the hope of the promise. He quotes from a scripture 
written in the fourteenth generation, in which the Holy Spirit repeats 
the sentence upon them, and upon all like them, who harden their 
hearts, saying, " They shall not enter into my rest.'"'^ What rest is 
here spoken of? The peaceable possession and enjoyment of the land 
so highly commended by Caleb. They did not enter in, but were 
turned back towards the Red Sea, and wandered in the wilderness for 
forty years, until the carcasses of all the rebels above twenty years old 

«Ntimb. xiii. xiv. ^Heb. iii. 18, 19 ; iv. 1, 2. cpsalm xcv. 7. 



274 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

fell to their lowest estate. But the fifth generation obtained the rest 
under Joshua when they possessed the land. No, says the apostle, 
they did not; "for if Joshua had given them rest, then would God 
not have spoken afterward by David of another day." The rest which 
Joshua gave the nation was only transitory. When he and his 
associates of the fifth generation died, the nations which God had not 
driven out, were as thorns in their sides, which gave them but little 
rest in after years. " There remaineth then," saith he, " a rest for the 
people of God ;" even Canaan in the age to come, under Shiloh, the 
Prince of Peace, whose " rest shall be glorious,"^ and undisturbed by 
war's alarms. 

Now this rest under Shiloh was preached unto them. The posses- 
sion under Joshua was the first step to the fall accomplishment of the 
covenant. Had the nation continued to obey the Lord's voice and to 
keep the covenant, and when Christ came received him as king on the 
proclamation of the gospel, they would doubtless have been in Canaan 
until now ; and he might have come ere this, and be now reigning in 
Jerusalem, King of the Jews and Lord of the nations. But had this 
been the case, we Gentiles would have had no part in the kingdom. 
We might attain to eternal life at the end of the reign ; but in the 
glory of the kingdom, and in the administration of its affairs, as heirs 
of the world with Abraham and his seed, we should have had no part ; 
for it was the unbelief of the forty-second generation of Israel that 
became the riches of the Gentiles. 

The fourth generation " could not enter in because of unbelief." 
Neither can we unless we also believe wliat they rejected ; for the same 
gospel that was preached to them, w^as preached by the apostles to the 
forty-second generation, but cannot be said to be preached to us of 
this century. I am endeavouring, however, to set it before the people 
in this book ; though I feel it a difficult work, seeing that men's minds 
are so mystified, and preoccupied, with the jargon of the schools. 
God's rest in Canaan — by which is not meant that all His saints will 
be Jiving there, though all that abide there will be a righteous people ; 
the things which belong to Canaan will overspread the world ; and 
where there are nations to be governed there will there be saints to 
rule — but this rest, I say, is the great theme of the gospel, whether 
preached by Moses, by Jesus, or by the apostles. The rest and the 
kingdom are but different terms, though substantially the same. They 
will both be of Canaan, and are both the subject of the promise made 
of God to Abraham and his seed for ever. 

THE ROYAL HOUSE OF THE KINGDOM. 

The covenant made with Abraham promised an immortal inheritor 
of Canaan ; and in Jacob's last prophecy it was plainly revealed that 
he should be its King, and should descend from Judah. By this, it 
was understood that Judah would be the royal tribe : but it was not 
known what family of Judah he would be born of. This was a matter 
which remained in abeyance until the fourteenth generation. The 

« Psalm cxxxii. 11-18. 



THE ROYAL HOUSE OF THE KIxS'GDOM. 275 

nation had been long settled in Canaan. For four hundred and 
fifty years the laws of the kingdom had been administered by judges, 
until at length the people demanded a king who should go in and out 
before them, as among the neighbour nations. This happened in the 
days of Samuel the prophet, who laid their request before the Lord. 
Though He was displeased at the demand, as it was in effect a rejection 
of Him, He nevertheless granted their request, and gave them Saul, of 
the tribe of Benjamin, until another man upon whom He had set His 
heart, should have been sufficiently trained in the school of adversity 
to take his place. This was David, the son of Jesse, and of the tribe 
of Judah. God ordered Samuel to anoint him king over Israel. By 
this act David became the Lord's anointed, or Christ ; and when he 
ascended the throne, ruled the nation as Jehovah's king. 

In the former part of his reign he was much engaged in war, 
which was at length terminated by the Lord giving him rest from all 
his enemies. At this crisis of his history, it came into his heart to 
build a magnificent temple for the ark and cherubim of glory. 
Though the Lord highly approved of the feeling which prompted the 
resolution, he forbad him carrying it into effect. The work was too 
momentous to be undertaken by one in David's case. Jehovah being 
the real king of Israel did not permit a national temple to be 
erected in His kingdom by a subordinate ruler without His primary 
direction. David had shed much blood, which was urged as an 
objection to his doing more than collecting the materials ; which his 
son should put together after his decease. 

At this time the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying, " Go 
and tell David my servant, thus saith the Lord, thou shalt not build 
me a house to dwell in. But the Lord telleth thee that he will make 
thee a house.''' What follows is an explanation of what is meant by 
this. " And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy 
fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of 
thy bowels, and I loill establish his hingdom. He shall build a house 
for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. 
I WILL BE HIS Father, and he shall be my son. Even in suffering 
for iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the 
stripes due to the children of Adam. But my mercy shall not depart 
away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. 
And thy house and thy hingdom shall he established for ever before 
THEE : thy throne shall be established for ever."" 

These promises are styled " an everlasting covenant^ even the sure 
mercies of David. '"^ There can be no doubt to whom they refer, for 
the apostle has applied them to Christ.'' In his last words, David thus 
expresses himself concerning them, " The God of Israel spake to me, 
saying, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of 
God. And he (the Just One) shall be as the light of the morning 
when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds ; as the tender 
grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain. Although 
my house be not so with God ; yet he hath made with me an ever- 

a 2 Sam. vii. 11-16. ^ Isaiah Iv. 3 : Acts xiii. 34. " Heb. i. 5. 



276 , THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

lasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure ; for this is all my 
salvation and all my desire, although he make it not to grow."" 

This covenant of the throne and kingdom was David's desire and 
salvation, because it promised him a resurrection to eternal life, in the 
assurance that his house, kingdom, and throne, with God's son and 
his son, one person, sitting upon it, should be established in his 
presence for ever. " I have made a covenant with my chosen, I 
have sworn unto David my servant, saying, Thy seed will 1 establish 
for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. He shall cry 
unto me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation. 
Also I will make him my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth. 
My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing which has gone out 
of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto 
David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun 
before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a 
faithful witness in heaven."^ 

After these testimonies there requires no further proof that David's 
family was constituted by a solemn covenant the Royal House of 
God's Kingdom ; and that that one of David's posterity whom God 
should acknowledge to be His son, should be its everlasting king. 
The claims of Jesus to be David's Seed and God's Son have been 
fully established by his resurrection from the dead ; which is an 
assurance to all men, both Jews and Gentiles, that God hath appointed 
him, as the Holy One of Israel their king ; to rule the world in 
righteousness, and to establish truth and equity among the nations ; 
-as God sware to Moses, saying, " Truly as I live, all the earth shall 
he filled with the glory of the Lord.'' Let us then proceed now to 
.some further inquiries about 

THE KINGDOM AND THRONE OF DAVID. 

There are, as we have seen, two everlasting covenants of promise 
upon which the kingdom of God is based — the one made with Abra- 
Jiam, and the other, with David. The former gives the land of 
Canaan to their Seed for ever ; the latter, the kingdom and throne 
established upon it, as long as the moon endures. They are called 
David's because his family alone can possess the kingdom. David's 
kingdom, however, is also " the kingdom of God and of his Anointed,'' 
or Christ ; for, whether David, or David's Son of the twenty-eighth 
generation after him, sit upon the throne, they are both the Lord's 
Anointed, and ruling as His representatives in His kingdom. The 
great difference between the two in regard to the anointing is, that 
David the First was anointed with holy material oil by the hand of 
'Samuel ; whereas Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit at his 
•emergence from the Jordan direct from the excellent glory. Hence, 
•Jesus, who is David the second as well as the second Adam, is 
Jehovah's Christ, or Anointed King, in a higher sense than " his 
father David." The Lord Christ and king David are associated in 
.several prophecies, because the everlasting covenant of promise made 

a 2 Sam. xxiii. 3-5. ^ Psalm Ixxxi'x. 3, 4, 19-28, 34-37. 



DAVID "both dead AND BURIED." 277 

with, tlie latter declares its mercies to them both at one and the same 
time. David is to witness the fulfilment of its promises ; for the 
record is, " Thy house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever." 
But when ? ." Before thee." From this, it is evident the everlasting- 
establishment of his kingdom cannot take place under the circum- 
stances which have obtained since the death of David until this present 
time ; because, if it is to exist perpetually " before,'' or in the presence 
of, David, David must be raised to life for immortality ; for, if mortal, 
he could not behold his throne occupied by Christ for ever. But " David 
is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre," said Peter, " is with, us 
until this day " — " He is not ascended into the heavens."^ If, then, 
he " is dead,'' and not " gone to heaven," as the phrase is, he is alive 
in no sense ; and consequently the covenant promises are not fulfilled. 
David must be alive when they are accomplished. Christ, his divine 
son, has been manifested and glorified, and God has recognized him 
as His son ; but in no other particular has the covenant been fulfilled : 
for he has inherited neither the land of Canaan, nor the kingdom 
and throne of David once upon it. 

But where are the kingdom and throne of David ? "In heaven, 
beyond the skies, where Christ is at the right hand of God, and 
where precious souls go to when they die." Such is the answer given 
by Gentile theology ! Need we wonder at Jews having such a 
contempt for what is called " Christianity," when they hear its 
professors gravely affirm sucb absurd nonsense as this ? Have 
Canaan, Jerusalem, and the twelve tribes been translated beyond the 
skies ? Oh no, say they, these things remain, but then they are types 
of things which exist where Jesus is ! Alas, what sorry stuff, what 
shilly-shally twaddle is this, to come out of the mouths of " great 
and good and pious men." It is admitted that David and Solomon's 
reigns were typical, or representative, of Christ's reign ; not beyond 
the skies, however ; but upon their throne and in their kingdom upon 
the veritable land promised to Abraham. But, inquires one, if not 
beyond the skies, where are the kingdom and throne of David ? In 
answer to this question, reader, mark it well — at present they exist 
nowhere. They once existed, and while they had a being they were 
the kingdom and throne of God among men. He has kingdoms and 
thrones in other orbs ; but we have nothing to do with them, and 
have no more right, had we the power, to go and take possession 
of them either as " souls," or bodies, than the angels have to come 
and seize upon all the thrones and kingdoms of earth, which belong 
to Christ and his brethren by inheritance. But let us leave to the owls 
and bats the idols of the schools, the worshipful phantasmata of the 
apostasy, and let us turn to the enlightening testimony of God. 

Tlie scripture, foreseeing that God would temporarily abolish, the 
kingdom of David, saith in view of the covenant, " But thou hast 
cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine anointed. 
Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant : thou hast profaned 
his eroivn by casting it to the ground. Thou hast broken down all 
his hedges ; thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin. All that 

« Acts ii. 29, 34. 



278 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

pass by the way spoil him : he is a reproach to his neighbours. Thou 
hast made his glory to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground. 
The days of his youth hast thou shortened : thou hast covered him 
with shame."'' This is descriptive of the state of the kingdom of 
God and of David for twenty-four centuries past. The crown and 
throne are in the dust, and the territory and people a bye-word among 
the nations. Instead of the covenant being fulfilled, if the present 
state of things were final, it would be " void,'' and the promise of 
God have failed. In view, then, of the promises and things as they 
are, the scripture inquires, " How long, Lord ? Wilt thou hide thy- 
self for ever ? Lord, where are thy former loving-kindnesses which 
thou swearest unto David in thy truth ? "^ Yes ; where are they ? In 
promise still. 

In the face of facts, what are we to say to the testimony, that 
''David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the House 
of Israel?'' Thus saith the Lord. "If ye can break my covenant 
of the day, that there should not be day in its season ; then may also 
my covenant be broken with David, my servant, that he should not 
have a son to reign upon his throne."" What shall we say to this ? 
There has been no son of David reigning upon his throne since the 
dethronement of Zedekiah by Nebuchadnezzar five hundred and 
ninety-five years before the birth of Christ. But it is not a question 
of uninterrupted succession; but of the everlasting occupation of the 
throne according to the covenant. When the time comes for this to 
be fulfilled, noted by David's resurrection, from thenceforth shall his 
son fill the throne of Israel's kingdom for ever. But what saith the 
scripture ? 

Just before the fall of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, the sins of 
Judah and its king had attained the full. Zedekiah was then on the 
throne wearing the crown of David. Ezekiel was commanded to 
say to him, " Thou profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is 
come, when iniquity shall have an end, thus saith the Lord God, 
' Eemove the diadem, and take off the crown : this (Zedekiah) shall 
not be the same (son of David spoken of in the covenant) : exalt 
him that is low (even Jesus), and abase him that is high,' " — that is, 
dethrone Zedekiah. But, then, what is to become of the kingdom of 
David ? Hear the Lord by His prophet — " I will overturn, overturn, 
overturn it : and it shall he no more until he (Shiloh) shall come 
whose right it is : and I will give it him."'' According to this word 
so has it been to the letter. The king's eyes were put out ; Zion was 
ploughed as a field ; and not a tribe remained in the land. After 
seventy j^ears' captivity, there was a restoration ander Ezra, Zerub- 
babel, Joshua, and Nehemiah. But until B.C. 165, the Israelites in 
Canaan were not even a kingdom, but a subject province of the 
Persian monarchy, and afterwards of the Macedonian. About the 
year named they became a kingdom again, but not David's. The 
throne was that of the Asmoneans, who were of the tribe of Levi. 
Their dynasty was superseded by the Roman senate, which set up 
Herod's family instead. He was an Idumean, and reigned till after 

« Psalm Ixxxix. 38-45. '^ verses 4G-49. ^ Jer. xxxiii. 17, 20, 21. ^Ezek. xxi. 25-27. 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD, PAST AND FUTURE. 279 

the birtli of Jesus, whom he sought to put to death. He was 
succeeded by Archelaus, who was deposed by the Romans, and Judea 
reduced into the form of a province under a procurator ; thus verifying, 
as is supposed, that the sceptre should depart from Judah when Shiloh 
came : and so it came to be when God called His Son Jesus out of 
Egypt. From that time to this, there has been no kingdom, or throne 
of Israel, in Canaan. The Hebrew commonwealth was broken up by 
the Romans about thirty years or so after the crucifixion ; and it hath 
been, and will be, no more, until the Lord Jesus come, who is the 
King of the Jews, and whose sole right it is to reign. 

In reference to this good time, which is near at hand, it is written, 
*' Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that good 
thing which I have promised to the house of Israel and to the house 
of Judah. In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of 
Righteousness to grow up unto David ; and he shall execute judgment 
and righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved, 
and Jerusalem shall dwell safely ; and this is the name whereby he 
shall be called the Lord our Righteousness in her."^ The kingdom of 
God, then, has existed once, but, for the present, exists " no more.^' It 
existed from the fourth to the twenty-eighth generation, a period of 
rather more than a thousand years ; but it has been extinct upwards 
of two thousand four hundred years — a time so long that the promise 
of its restoration has become a mere fable, or speculation, in the 
estimation of the world ! But the believer in the gospel of this king- 
dom rejoices in the sure and certain hope of its restitution, and glorious 
and triumphant existence for a thousand years, at the expiration of 
which kingdoms on earth will be no more, but God will be all and in all. 

The reader, then, will perceive from this exposition that the king- 
dom of God must be studied in the two periods of its existence — in the 
thousand years of the past, and in the thousand years of the Age to 
come. As God's kingdom of the past, it is the grandest theme of 
ancient, or modern, history ; but as His kingdom of the future, it is 
the sublime topic of '* the truth as it is in Jesus." In the past, it 
existed under the law of Moses, which made nothing perfect. Its 
kings and priests were frail and mortal men, who held the kingdom 
for a brief space, and then " left it to other iDeople,'' Its subjects were 
rebellious, and its realm invaded and wasted by the hands of ruthless 
and barbarous foes. But how changed will be its fortunes in Messiah's 
age ! The same land and nation will then be under the law of the 
New Covenant which goes forth from Zion. All things will be per- 
fected. Its king and pontiff will be the King immortal from the right 
hand of God. The rulers of the tribes will be the fishermen of 
Galilee, " shining as the stars for ever and ever." The chiefs of its 
cities, and the possessors of its glory, its honours, and its dominion 
will be the holy ones of God, "equal to the angels," and subject unto 
death no more. In short, " the saints of the Most High will take the 
kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever,"^ never 
receding from their position, nor leaving it to be possessed by others. 

«■ Jer. xxiii. 5, 6 : xxxiii. 14-16 ; Ezek. xlviii. 35 ; Isaiah, xxiv. 23. 
^ Dan. vii. 18 : ii. 44. 



280 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 



CHAPTER V. 

THINGS CONCERNINa THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST. • 

Israel unable to redeem themselves ; and the nations equally powerless to their 
own regeneration. — The reconstriiction of the social fabric the work of 
Omnipotence by the hand of the Lord Jesus at his approaching manifestation. 
— He will re-establish the kingdom and throne of David. — The priesthood of 
Shiloh. — The Ezekiel temple to be built by Christ. — Of the Name of Jesus. — 
Of repentance, remission of sins, and eternal life. — Death-bed and gaol 
repentance. 

By this time, I presume, the reader well understands what the Lord 
has promised, or covenanted, to do. Let him, then, in view of these 
" exceeding great and precious promises," take a mental survey of 
Canaan, of Israel, and of the nations — of Canaan in its desolation, of 
Israel in their dispersion, and of the nations in the abyss of mortal 
ignorance, and of dark and cruel superstitions ; and prostrate under 
the iron heel of blood-stained and murderous tyrannies. This is truly 
a bottomless abyss from which neither Israel nor the Gentiles are able 
to extricate themselves. The strength of Israel has hid his face from 
them ; they are therefore powerless among the nations, and can neither 
"restore all things," nor return to their country. As for the pagan, 
Papal, Protestant, and Mohammedan, peoples, their case is equally 
desperate with that of the Jews. They groan under the armed 
oppressor ; they sigh after " hberty, fraternity, and equality ; " they 
long for the regeneration of society ; but instead of looking to heaven 
for deliverance, they curse God and despise His laws ; and grasping 
the sword undertake the amelioration of society by deeds of blood ! 
Mankind have not yet learned that the world's redemption from all 
its evils is from God ; nor are they aware, such is the impenetrability 
of human ignorance, that they have neither virtue, knowledge, power, 
nor wisdom, enough, to deliver themselves from their miseries, and to 
re-constitute society to the promotion of their own happiness, and to 
the glory and honour of the Most High. There is no man, nor any 
combination of men, under the heavens, that is competent to the work 
of social regeneration. If individuals be tmable to regenerate them- 
selves, which is unquestionable ; no association of persons, however 
multitudinous, can renew the world, and make it what it ought to be. 
That it needs regeneration is self-evident to all the " sons of light ; " 
and that it cannot of itself compass that necessity is equally apparent 
to all, save those who are of the night. What then is the hope of 
the believer in the world's extremity. Let the "testimony of God " 
be our oracle ; and let Him reveal to us the help He has provided, the 
deliverance in reserve. 

In the testimony a voice is heard addressing the nations in these 
words, saying, " Listen, isles, unto me ; and hearken, ye people, 
from far ; the Lord hath called me from the womb ; from the hoioels 



JESUS TO BRING JACOB AGAIN TO GOD. 281 

of my mother hath he made mention of my name. He hath, made 
my mouth hke a sharp sword ; in the shadow of his hand hath he 
hid me, and made me a polished shaft : and said unto me, thou art 
my servant, Israel, in ivhom I will he glorified.'' Need the reader 
be told who this great and mighty one is ? Whose name was mentioned 
by the Lord before his birth ? Hear the scripture — " And Gabriel said 
to Mary, behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, 
and shalt call his name Jesus (Heh. Jehoshua, or Jehovah-tzidkenu, the 
Lord our righteousness), for he shall save his people from their sins. 
He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest ; and the 
Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David : and he 
shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever ; and of his kingdom there 
shall be no end."" 

But he was born, and has departed, and is hid in the shadow of 
the Lord's hand ; and has neither received David's throne, nor does he 
reign over Israel, who, though born to rule over them, " curse their 
king and their God, and look upwards."^ We shall see how this is. 
In the oracle quoted, the Lord Jesus, who makes proclamation to the 
isles of the Gentiles, announces himself as the Servant of Jehovah in 
whom he toill he glorified. Now a servant implies loork to he 'performed 
for, and in behalf of, another. What work, or service, then, has the 
Lord Jesus to execute for the Father? "Behold the Lord will come 
with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him : behold his reward 
is with him, his loorhheiorQ him."'^ We want to know what this work 
is. Hear then what the word saith. " The Lord formed me from the 
womb to be his servant to hring Jacoh again to him.'' But is the 
restoration of the tribes of Israel all he will have to do ? We shall 
find not ; for Jehovah says to him, " It is a light thing that thou 
shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to 
restore the desolation of Israel : I will also give thee for a light 
to the Gentiles, that thou mayest he my salvation to the ends of the 
earth."^ 

The Lord Jesus, the servant of Jehovah, then, is in reserve at the 
right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, for the purpose of a future 
manifestation, not to destroy the earth and to burn up the wicked, but 
to fulfil the covenants of promise ; in putting an end to the desolation 
of Canaan, restoring the tribes to their native land, re-estabhshing the 
commonwealth of Israel, enlightening the nations, regenerating society, 
filling the earth with the glory of the Lord, establishing his sovereignty 
in the world, and in rewarding the saints. All this is to be accom- 
plished when the Lord comes. The God of the fathers will then 
remember the covenants which he hegan to fulfil when he called Israel 
out of Egypt under Moses ; and when he called Jesas out of Egypt in 
the days of Archelaus. These were but earnests of the good things to 
come, in the manifestation of which the promises will be perfected in 
every jot and tittle of the word. 

This is the sense in which James understood the testimony of God. 
" Simeon," said he, " hath declared how God at the first did visit the 

« Matt. i. 21 ; Luke i. 31-33. ^ Isaiah viii. 21. c Isaiah xl. 10. 
'^ Isaiah xlix. 1-3, 5, 6, 8. 



282 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his namey Then, in quoting 
the words of Amos, he continues, " After this I will return, and will 
build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down : and I will 
build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up : that the residue 
of men (Edom) might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles to 
whom my name is called, saith the Lord."^ This was adduced as a 
quietus upon the Judaizers to prove the acceptance of Gentiles by the 
Lord as well as of Jews, and upon the same terms. But I have 
introduced it here to show the arrangement of things in relation to the 
work to be performed. We see that there is a certain labour to be 
finished — to wit, the taking out a people from among the nations for 
the Lord's name. By the time this is accomplished, the Lord will 
return. But what does the text before us say he returns for ? To set 
up David's kingdom which is in ruins. But again, what ulterior 
purpose is to be effected through this restitation ? The turning the 
Gentiles from their delusions to serve God according to the institutions 
of the Age to come. The people for the Lord's name are the saints or 
" heirs of the kingdom." Such an institution requires administrators ; 
and as from its nature only righteous and immortal men can inherit 
it, it became necessary to call them out, first from Israel, and then 
from the nations, upon the principle of the ohedience of faith. This 
is one reason why so many ages have elapsed from the promise of it 
to Abraham until now. If it had been possible to set it up in 
Abraham's time, where would have been the kings and priests to 
answer its requirements, seeing it is to rule over all nations ? It 
would have been a kingdom without rulers. Hence, the gospel, or glad 
tidings, concerning it have been preached for the purpose of obtaining 
kings, priests, and princes of all ranks and degrees, for the kingdom, 
when the time comes for the God of heaven to establish it by the hand 
of His servant, the Lord Christ. 

If Jew or Gentile aspire to this glorious station in the Age to 
come, " the prize " is attainable on the simple condition of believing 
the things concerning the Kingdom and the name of Jesus Christ, and 
of being baptised ; and thenceforth walking as becomes men, who are 
to be, not only the rulers, but the com^Danions of Christ, and examples 
of the nations in righteousness, equity, and faith. The time, however, 
for collecting together the nohility of the kingdom is almost elapsed. 
It has been continuous with the desolation of Jerusalem. She was to 
be " trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles 
should be fulfilled."^ These times are almost accomplished. Only a 
few more years remain, and then " the accepted time and day of 
salvation " will have passed. The door into the kingdom will be shut, 
and no more can obtain a right to enter in. Men who may survive the 
worse than Egyptian plagues coming apon them, may live in the 
future age in hope of immortality when the age has passed away ; but 
in the glory and honour of Shiloh's " everlasting dominion," they will 
have neither part nor lot. 

« Acts XV, 14-17. ^ Luke xxi. 24. 



THE PRIESTHOOD OF SHILOH. 283 



THE PRIESTHOOD OF SHILOH. 

In the everlasting covenant made with. David, the son promised 
him, who is to sit upon his throne and to wear his crown for ever, is 
also set forth as a sacrificial victim ; as it is written, " In suffering 
for iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the 
stripes due to the children of Adam." So the passage is rendered 
by Adam Clarke. It is in strict accordance with the truth in the 
case ; and in agreement with the testimony, which says, " He hath 
borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows : yet we did esteem him 
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for 
OQr transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities ; the chastise- 
ment of our peace was upon him ; and with his stripes we are 
healed."^ 

But, being a sacrifice for sin, who should be the priest in the case, 
and enter into the Most Holy with his blood to make atonement, or 
reconciliation, for his people ? Where there is a sacrifice there is also 
of necessity a priest. There were priests under the law of Moses, 
who went into the Most Holy with the blood of the slain beasts, 
and sprinkled it upon the lid of the ark called the propitiatory, or 
mercy-seat, upon which the cherubic faces looked. But the blood of 
David's Son was not to be sprinkled there. It was not to be carried 
into the Most Holy made with hands, either by himself, or by the 
high priest of the law ; and wherever its memorial was presented, 
it could only be exhibited by a high priest. The Son of David 
could not officiate as a priest on earth so long as the covenant from 
Sinai continued the law of the land ; because it permitted only the 
tribe of Levi to minister in holy things. He belonged to the tribe of 
Judah, " of w^hich Moses said nothing concerning priesthood." He 
could not enter into the temple after his resurrection and present 
himself before the Lord in its most holy place ; neither could the 
levitical high prist enter heaven with the memorial of Shiloh's death. 
What, then, was to be done ? David's son must appear in heaven 
in his own person, and as the high priest of a new law offer himself 
before God. 

But the covenant made with David, while it speaks of his son as 
a sacrifice, and, by implication, of his resurrection, and future occu- 
pation of his throne for ever ; says nothing about him as high 
priest of his kingdom. Hence, in order that he might enter his 
divine Father's presence as a high priest, and hereafter sit as 
a priest upon the throne of David's kingdom, " the word of the 
oath "^ was given for the purpose. This was necessary ; for " no man 
taketh this honour upon himself, but he that is called of God as Aaron 
was." David's son was called to the high priesthood of the kingdom, 
as distinctly as Aaron was to the same honour under the Mosaic law. 
" He glorified not himself to be made a high priest ; but he that 
said unto him, Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee ; saith 
also in another place. Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of 
Melchizedec."" 

Isaiah liii. 4, 5. ^ Heb. vii. 28. «Heb. v. 4-6 ; Psalm ex. 4. 



284 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

Here, then, are two orders of priesthood — the Order of Melchize- 
dec, and the Order of Aaron. Melchizedec's was contemporary with 
Abraham ; Aaron's was not instituted until 430 years after the con- 
firmation of the covenant. Of Melchizedec the apostle could have 
said much more than he did say ; but he has said enough to give us 
an idea of his order of priesthood. In this he was without predecessor, 
or successor, without sacerdotal genealogy, and without beginning of 
official days, or end of life ; but, assimilated to the Son of God, 
abideth a priest continually ; of whom also it is testified that he 
liveth." The Aaronic priesthood was the reverse of all this. Its 
priests were descended from Aaron, their mothers were of the tribe 
of Levi, their fathers in office before them, upon which they entered 
at thirty years, and vacated it at fifty. But the priesthood of Shiloh 
is not like this. His pedigree is royal, and not sacerdotal. He had 
no predecessor, nor will he ever vacate the office that another may 
take his place. 

It is probable that Shem was the personage to whom Abraham 
paid tithes on his return from the slaughter of the kings. Abraham 
died thirty-five years before Shem reached his five hundred and second 
year after the flood. At this date, Isaac was one hundred and ten, and 
Jacob fifty ; so that they were contemporary with Shem for these 
periods of their lives. There is no account of Shem's death in the 
Scripture ; on the contrary, it is testified, as we have seen, that the 
person called Melchizedec still lives. Now, Melchizedec is a word 
expressive of the character of the person who bore it. It signifies 
king of righteousness, or righteous king. He was the greatest king 
in Canaan, and reigned in Salem, which signifies peace, and after- 
wards called Jerusalem ; so that this righteous king was King of 
Peace. Shem, king of righteousness, and king of peace, and priest 
of the Most High God, is the type, contemporary with the holder 
of the promises, of the Seed, or Christ, on the throne of the 
Kingdom of God. 

The word of the oath, saying, " I have sworn, and will not 
repent. Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec," 
having changed the priesthood of the kingdom, " there is made of 
necessity also a change of the law "^ of the State. No revolution was 
more complete and radical than that necessitated by the substitution 
of the Melchizedec for the Aaronic priesthood of the commonwealth 
of Israel. Under the Mosaic code the regal and pontifical offices were 
divided, and held by two distinct orders of men. The regal was 
hereditary in the. family of David, and the pontifical was hereditary 
in the family of Aaron ; but when the new code shall be promulged, 
that, namely, which is to " go forth from Zion " when Christ shall 
give peace to the world, and judge among the nations, the kingly and 
priestly offices will be united, and their functions exercised by one 
person, even Jesus, " who is King of Righteousness and King of 
Peace, and Priest of the Most High God," as Melchizedec was. 
Jesus the High Priest will inherit the throne of David by virtue of 
the covenant made with him. If there had been no other oaths than 

« Heb. vii. 3, 8. ^^ Heb. vii. 12. 



THE HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL NATIONS. 285 

that with Abraham, and this with David, David's son could not 
have been a priest upon his throne ; but the word of the oath coming 
in, the throne and pontificate of the kingdom become the right of 
Christ, the Lord. 

SHILOH TO BUILD A TEMPLE, 

In the everlasting covenant made with David, it is declared of his 
immortal son by the Lord, saying, "He shall huild a house for my 
name.'' David wished to execute this great national work, but was 
forbidden. It was afterwards accomplished by Solomon, and in this he 
eminently typified the " greater than Solomon," who is to construct a 
similar edifice, only on a vastly more magnificent scale. This will 
appear from the following testimony. After Solomon's temple was 
laid in ruins, and while the Jews, after their return from Babylon, were 
erecting a new one upon the site of the old, the word of the Lord 
came to the prophet, saying, " Behold the man whose name is the 
Branch : and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall huild the 
temple of the Lord ; even he shall build the temple of the Lord ; and 
he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne ; and 
shall he a priest upon his throne. And they that are far off shall come 
and build in the temple of the Lord."" 

Let the reader turn to the texts below, and he will have no doubt 
as to the person styled the Branch.^ The Melchizedec Son of David, 
then, is to build the Millennial temple in Jerusalem to the name of 
Jehovah ; and as the Tyrian Gentiles aided Solomon to rear his edifice, 
so those who are far off from Jerusalem, where the prophecy was 
delivered, are to co-operate in the erection of Shiloh's, which is to be 
" a house of prayer for all people,''"^ when the Lord shall " plant the 
heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou 
art my people."'^ If the reader wish to know more about the temple 
to be built by Shiloh in Jerusalem, he can consult Ezekiel.^ The 
description comes in between the battle of Armageddon, in which 
Nebuchadnezzar's image is broken to pieces on the mountains of Israel, 
and the earth shining with the glory of the Lord. The first nine 
verses of the forty-third chapter show that the era of the temple 
described is when Shiloh " dwells in the midst of the children of Israel 
for ever, and his holy name they shall defile no more.'' This is con- 
clusive ; for ever since their exode from Egypt until the present time, 
they have incessantly defiled the Lord's name ; but the prophecy 
contemplates a period when they shall do it " 720 more." 

When the Lord Jesus shall sit upon the throne of his father 
David, as high priest of the nation, and has dedicated the temple to 
tlie Most High, what then ? " Many people shall go and say, Come ye, 
and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house (or temple) 
of the God of Jacob ; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will 
walk in his paths."f " The sons Of the stranger, that join themselves 
to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be 

o Zech. vi, 12, 13, 15. ^ Zech. iii. 8; Isaiah xi. 1 ; Jer. xxiii. 5 : xxxiii. 15 ; 
Rev. xxii. 16. e Isaiah Ivi. 7. ^ Isaiah li. 16. « Ezek xL, xli., xlii. / Isaiah ii, 3. 



286 THE THINCJS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and 
taketh hold of my covenant : even them will I bring to my holy mountain, 
and make them joyful in my house of prayer : their burnt offerings and 
their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar." And " there shall 
be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts."'' 

THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST. 

If I have been successful in making a distinct impression upon the 
reader's mind as to the nature of " the kingdom of God and of his 
Christ ; " and that impression have originated within him a desire to 
know lohat he must do to inherit it, it remains now to direct his 
attention to the things of the name of Christ. This is a subject which 
would occupy very much space if all were to be said about it that 
would be profitable. I find myself, however, compelled to confine 
myself to a mere sketch, which the reader must more highly finish as 
the result of his own investigations. 

The name of Jesus Christ comprehends all that is affirmable of 
him ; and is therefore the summary of his character as a prophet, 
sacrifice, priest, and king. Hence, to understand his name we must 
know what is testified of him in the law, the prophets, the psalms, 
and the apostles. From the " Old Testament " we may become 
acquainted with the Shiloh's name. This is absolutely necessary ; 
for unless we understand what sort of a person Christ was to be, how 
can we, when we learn the name of Jesus as described by the apostles, 
be able to say that the name of Christ as set forth in the prophets, 
and the name of Jesus, are the name of one and the same person ? 
But by comparing the apostolic history with the testimony of prophecy, 
we can intelligently confess that " Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ the 
Son of the living God." This, then, is a first principle of the name 
of Jesus. Admit that he is the Shiloh, and all things predicted of the 
Shiloh are solely applicable to him. 

Now there are certain things affirmed of Jesus Christ, the belief 
of which are highly essential to the constituting of a believer an heir 
of the kingdom. These things have regard to Jesus as an offering 
for sin. He died, was buried, and rose again. These are facts. 
But what is the truth, meaning, or doctrine, of the facts ? " He 
was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justifica- 
tion ; "^ that is, for the justification of those who believe the gospel of 
the kingdom. It is a great mistake to suppose that the belief in the 
sacrificial part of the name of Jesus Christ, is sufficient for salvation. 
Salvation in the kingdom is not promised to those who only believe 
that Jesus is the Son of God, and died and rose again for sin. It is 
equally necessary to believe in the promises of the covenants ; not 
more so, but equally so : for if one believed the things of the kingdom, 
but rejected the sacrifice of Jesus, and his resurrection, he could not 
be saved. The gospel must be taken as a whole, and not cut up into 
pieces, and one or two selected which suit the taste, and the rest set 
aside as unimportant and non-essential. Without the sacrificial 

« Zech. xiv. 16-21 ; Isaiah Ivi. 3-6. ^ Rom. iv. 25 ; Isaiah liii. 5, 10. 



WHAT PAUL PREACHED "FIRST OF ALL." 287 

ingredient of tlie name, there would be no means of justification by 
the name ; but then Jesus as a sin-offering is not the end of faith ; 
but a means to the end, which is the inheritance of the kingdom with 
him in all his glory. 

A very circumscribed and superficial view of the gospel is that 
which finds it stated in the words, "Christ died for onr sins according 
to the scriptures, was buried, and rose again the third day according 
to the scriptures."" The " our " for whom Christ died are those who 
believe the gospel of the kingdom, not those who are ignorant of it ; 
or, as the apostle expresses it, those " who keep in memory a CERTAm 
WORD 1 preached unto them." What word? That which he taught 
among them a year and six months ; and which he preached wherever 
he went. The word concerning " the hope of Israel " on account of 
which he was taken prisoner to Rome ; and which the Jews listened 
to patiently,'' so long as he did not mention the name of Jesus ; but 
when that was introduced, they opposed themselves and blas- 
phemed.*" Because the apostle is made to say in the common version 
that he " delivered first of all " the death and resurrection of Christ, 
persons, who know no other than their mother tongue, conclude that 
the sacrifice of Jesus for sin was the first thing spoken, and the very 
gospel itself ! But the apostle did not write " first of all ; " his words 
are ev wpioroig, that is, among the first things. And why does he call 
up the things mentioned in the third and fourth verses in preference 
to the other things he delivered ? Because he was about to refute the 
Platonic notion taught by some in Corinth, to wit, " that there is no 
resurrection of the dead ; " and to do so it was necessary to remind 
them of his having preached to them the sacrificial death and resurrec- 
tion of Jesus ; which was all a fable, if there were no future resurrec- 
tion as they said ; because it had " passed already : "'^ " Ye are then," 
said he, " yet in your sins, and they who are fallen asleep in Christ 
are perished." 

Three things were to be preached in the name of Jesus Christ to 
them who believed in the promises made of God to the fathers. 
These were, first, repentance ; secondly, remission of sins; and third, 
eternal life.^ To preach the kingdom in the name of Jesus Christ 
was to expound the things concerning it ; and to offer them to all who 
would become the subjects of repentance and remission of sins in his 
name. Neither " flesh and blood" nor " sinners," can inherit the 
kingdom of God.^ These are fixed principles. But why not ? 
Because ^'the kingdom shall not he left to other people," and because 
those who inherit it are to possess it for ever. Now " flesh and 
blood" is mortal; how then can mortality inherit immortality? It 
is a physical impossibility. In other words, a man who onl}^ lives 
seventy years, cannot hold office for a thousand years ; he must be 
made deathless before he can retain it for ever. Again, it is a moral 
impossibility for sinners to possess the kingdom, because the law of 
the kingdom is that " he that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in 
the fear of God." It is the inheritance of saints, to whom the Lord 

« 1 Cor. XV. 3, 4. ^ Acts xviii. 4. c Acts xviii. 5, 6, 11. d 2 Tim. ii. 18. 
" Luke xxiv. 44-47 : Jolin xx. 31. /I Cor. xv. 50. 



288 THE THINGS OF THE KINGIX)M OF GOD. 

will not impute sin. Two things are therefore indispensable before 
Jew or Gentile can inherit the kingdom — first, a moral purification ; 
and secondly, a physical, or corporeal, purification. The first is 
compassed in obeying the truth ; the last, by a resurrection 
unto life. 

Now, the repentance which results from believing the gospel of the 
kingdom is not " sorrow for sin ;" nor does it contain the least bitter- 
ness or remorse of feeling in it. The scripture word translated 
repentance is jieravoia, and signifies a change of mind and purpose. 
When such a change takes place from believing the truth, it is a 
disposition and mode of thinking such as characterized Abraham, who 
is the model of the faith and temper, which precedes justification in 
the name of the Lord. But a change of mind and purpose, however 
*' evangelical," is only granted for repentance in the name of Jesus 
Christ. That is to say, though a believer of the gospel of the kingdom 
might possess this state of mind and child-like disposition, he would 
not be regarded as in repentance any more than in Jesus, until the 
name of Christ was named upon him according to " the laio of faith.'' 
It imports not how much a woman loves a man, she is not his wife, 
and therefore entitled to none of the benefits he is able to confer, until 
she puts on his name according to law. The name of Christ consum- 
mates everything. " Complete in him ;" but out of him everything is 
imperfect. Faith is unfinished, and the change of mind and disposi- 
tion is incomplete, until the believer of the gospel of the kingdom 
puts on the name of Christ. In the act of doing this, his faith is 
counted to him for righteousness, or remission of sins that are 
past ; and his change of mind and disposition is granted to him for 
repentance.'^ 

But a right to eat of the tree of life in the paradise of Cod is also 
imparted to the believer through the name of Christ. The life-giving 
efficacy of his name is derived from his resurrection as the first-fruits 
of them that sleep. Had Jesus not risen from the dead, men could 
not have obtained a right to eternal life through his name. This is 
the doctrine of the apostles and the prophets. An unrisen sacrifice 
is only a temporary propitiation for sin. This was the nature of the 
sacrifices under the Mosaic law. Hence the law had no vitality in 
it ; " for if there had been a law given that could have given life, 
verily righteousness should have been by the law."^ But this was 
impossible. Moses was the mediator of the covenant from Sinai. He 
died, and the Lord buried him ; but there was no testimony added of 
his resurrection : and though he lives (for he appeared to Jesus on the 
Mount), it was after the law came into force. The Mosaic law is, 
therefore, a minister only of death and cursing. But Jesus died and 
rose again, and lives for evermore. Hence, the gospel in his nam^, and 
the new code hereafter to be promulgated from Zion, are efficacious to 
the bestowal of a right to eternal life upon all who believe through 
his name. 

While a believer is out of Christ, he is in his sins, and while he is 
in his sins he is under the sentence of death ; for " the wages of sin 

a Acts V. 31: xi. 18. «- Gal. iii. 21. 



DEATH-BED, AND GAOL REPENTANCE. 289 

is death." As soon, however, as his sins are forgiven through Christ's 
name, in the act of forgiveness he passes from under the sentence of 
death ; and as there is no middle, or neutral, position, he comes under 
tJie sentence of life, and rejoices in hope of the kingdom of God. 
Thus Jesus Christ hath abolished death, and brought life and incor- 
ruptibility to light in the gospel of the kingdom.^ There is no other 
way of obtaining them than through his name, and by a resurrection 
f]-om the dead ; or, if living at the setting up of the kingdom, by a 
cliange in the twinkling of an eye. Such is the doctrine of Christ 
as opposed to the vain philosophy of Plato. The Papist and Protestant 
admirers of this heathen speculator, contend for the hereditary immor- 
tality of an immaterial essence, innate in sinful flesh ; while the Lord 
Jesus has made known that life and incorruptibility are attributes of 
the kingdom of God, which they only can obtain who are accounted 
worthy on gospel principles of inheriting it. In fine, incorruptible 
life is part of the reward of the righteous ; and nowhere in the Bible 
is immortality predicated of, or promised to, men who die in their sins. 
Out of Christ immortality there is none. 

DEATH-BED, AND GAOL REPENTANCE. 

By " the great salvation " is meant deliverance from the grave by 
a resurrection to life, and a share in the kingdom of God. This, as 
we have seen, is predicated on faith in the promises made to the 
fathers, an Abrahamic disposition, baptism into the name of the Holy 
Ones, and faith made perfect by works. In other words, salvation 
is promised to those only who walk in the steps of Abraham's faith. 
To deny this is to deny the testimony of God. His own Son was not 
exalted until he was made perfect hj suffering. "He that believes 
the gospel, and is baptised, shall be saved ; and he that believes not 
shall be condemned." This fiat has never been revoked ; it is, there- 
fore, as valid and exceptionless as when it fell from the lips of the 
Son of God. 

Now, in view of this irrefutable truth, what shall we say of that 
system, which holds out assurances of " heaven " to men of earthly, 
sensual, and devilish lives, when they find themselves prisoners of 
disease, and convicts in the clutches of the law ? When death stares 
them in the face, they are exhorted by their " spiritual guides " to 
" make their peace with God ; " and even when preparing for the 
scaffold are taught by " gaol chaplains " to expect to meet in heaven 
the companions of their crimes ; and that by partaking of the 
" sacrament " they are making their souls ready " to meet their 
God ! " And upon what is all this " consolation of religion " 
founded ? Upon a terrible apprehension of the molten and flaming 
sidphur in hell's cauldron, into which the "penitents" are taaght 
their " immortal souls " will be plunged by God, and where they 
will be tormented by the Devil for all eternity. A gaol-chaplain at 
Coventry actually burned a female convict's hand with the flame of a 
candle as a foretaste of her tortures after death if she did not 

« 2 Tim. i. 10. 



290 THE THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

repent ! This was his plan of proceeding in the " cure of her soul ! " 
But if disease, or crime, had not captured the " penitents," their career 
would have been still onward in iniquity. Finding there is no escape 
from death, either by the rope, or in the ordinary way, their audacity 
and impiety are suspended. They are imposed upon by the clerical 
assurance that the Lord is " waiting to be gracious ; " they are directed 
to the thief upon the cross ; and they are deceived by the falsehood, 
that " while the lamp holds out to burn, the vilest sinner may return." 
All is ready, the gospel feast is prepared, and nothing is wanting but 
for them to believe that Christ died for them, to be sorry for the past, 
profess themselves at peace with God and all mankind, and to pray for 
forgiveness through Jesus Christ. 

Thus the " spiritual guides " of the people shrive them to perdition. 
An act of the mind, prompted by terror and their persuasions, is 
proposed by them as a set off for a whole life of impiety and crime ! 
What base views must such men have of the God whose ministers they 
pretend to be ! Their " consolations " are unmitigated blasphemy, and 
false from first to last. Need they be surprised at the little impression 
they make upon the public mind by their preaching ; and that mankind 
are daily increasing in infidelity ? The million, though ignorant, are 
not fools. " What necessity for us," say they, " to trouble ourselves 
about religion. We can be shrived in half-an-hour for all the offences 
of a long life of sin." It is the preachers that make men infidels b}^ 
the preposterous absurdities they preach in the much-abused name of 
Christianity. 

But the worst, and most repulsive, form of ministerial blasphemy 
is exhibited in gaol-chaplain consolations. These are a striking mani- 
festation of clerical ignorance of the letter and spirit of the truth. 
The scripture saith, that " no murderer hath eternal life abiding in 
him ; " and that even '' he that hatethhis brother is a murderer," and, 
consequently, beyond the pale of mercy. Murder can only be pardoned 
through a faith in the truth that works by love and purifies the heart, 
and made perfect by obedience. If after this such a believer fail of 
the grace of God, and hate, and murder, his brother, there is no for- 
giveness with God, " he shall not see life ; but the wrath of God 
abideth upon him." What with sprinkling infants in the name of the 
Lord, and calling it Christian baptism ; shriving reprobates at the gates 
of death, and calling it repentance ; and committing their loathsome 
carcases to the earth under a repetition of " common prayer " read over 
myriads of times, and styling it Christian burial ; surely there is 
superabundant reason to conclude, were we even ignorant of the truth 
itself, that both priests and people are deceiving and being deceived. 

To call the popular system of religion by which we are surrounded, 
the religion of Christ, is not only a misnomer, but an imj^utation on 
the wisdom of God. Infant-sprinkling, deatb-bed repentances, 
and " Christian burials," as they are termed, are mere human 
inventions. They belong to the apostasy, and are no part of the 
" things of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ." If a 
man serve the lusts of his flesh all his life, no remorse, or resolves, on 
a bed of death will serve in the least. " He that sows to his flesh shall 



THE CRIMES FOR WHICH THE WORLD IS TO BE JUDGED. 291 

of the flesh reap corruption ; for whatsoever a man soweth that shall 
he also reap ; "" and again, " to be carnally-minded is death; " and 
" they that are in the flesh cannot please God ; " and "if ye live 
after the flesh ye shall die."^ These are testimonies, w^hich in few 
words show, that there is no salvation for a man who serves himself 
all the clays of his life, and when he is no longer able to grasp the 
world, offers the extreme fag-end of his existence to God. It is like 
eating all the meat of a joint, and throwing the bone to your friend. 
If he would feel himself insulted, in what estimation would God hold 
a similar treatment of His Majesty ; would He not spurn the hypocrite 
from His presence, and justly too ? 

It is because of these abominations that the judgments of God are 
falling upon the nations. Ministerial and popular iniquities have 
brought the pestilence upon this people ; and war and famine upon 
others. They are but the beginning of sorrows. At present the storm 
has lulled ; but it is only that it may gather force to sweep before it 
all refuges of lies. " Woe to the world because of offences ! " 

In former pages, I have endeavoured to show the reader what the 
truth is. I have advanced nothing that I can recollect, but what I 
ha\?e adduced " the law and the testimony " to prove. Let him view the 
landscapes of the moral world by the light of the truth, and he will 
behold the darkness visible. He will see its drapery in tatters, and its 
rags falling to pieces from very rottenness. Its fabric is rent from the 
dome to its foundations ; and its structure is like a bowing wall and a 
tottering fence. There is no safety under its roof. Even the owls and 
the bats of its crannies are panic-stricken. Come out, then, dear 
reader, and leave the den, if unhappily you sojourn there. Believe the 
truth for its own sake, and obey it ; and if you stand alone, be of good 
courage. There is more real satisfaction in knowing, and being able 
to prove, the truth, and in contending single-handed for it, than in all the 
honour and enjoyment derivable from the applause of men, or the 
abundance of the world's goods a man may possess. 

If the righteous " scarcely be saved " what scope is there for the 
ungodly and the sinner ; '^ and if judgment began at the house of God 
in the persecutions it endured, " what shall the end be of them that 
obey not the gospel of God? "'^ Be not deceived by the traditions of 
the Gentile scribes, and orators. Their ministrations have no vitality 
in them, and leave their flocks in their own predicament, " dead in 
trespasses and in sins." Therefore, " come out from among them, and 
be ye separate, and touch not the unclean ; and I will receive you, and 
will be a Father to you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith 
the Lord Almighty.'''^ 

a Gal. vi. 7, 8. ?'Rom. viii. 6, 8, 13 c l Pet. iv. 18, 17. ^2 Cor. vi. 17, 18. 



PART THIRD. 

THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD IN 
RELATION TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 



CHAPTER I. 

NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S IMAGE. — THE HAND OF GOD IN HUMANT 

HISTORY. 

The pandemonianism of the world. — The Press, its organ to a great extent. — Its 
conductors greatly deficient in political prevision. — A divine agency the real 
source of the world's revolutions. — God hath revealed what shall come to pass. 
— Nebuchadnezzar's Image explained.- — It represents an Aixtocracy to be mani- 
fested in these Latter Days. — The Toe-Kingdoms enumerated. — The Vision of 
the Four Beasts. — Of the Saints and the two Witnesses. 



Having laid before the reader in the former parts of this work " the 
things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ," 
and, I trust, enabled him to be " ready always to give an answer to 
every man that asketh him a reason of the hope that is in him," and 
also to know, without doubt, what he must do to be saved, I propose 
now to give an outline of the things set forth in " the sure word of 
prophecy " in relation to that crisis in human affairs which has come 
upon the world, and which is destined to be the occasion of the 
introduction of the kingdom of God. 

The Lord hath truly said by the prophet, " I have a long time 
holden my peace ; I have been still, and refrained myself."" It is 
now about eighteen hundred years since He spoke by His servant 
John to the seven congregations in Asia Minor ; and so entirely 
hath He refrained Himself from further revelation of His will, 
that men have at length almost generally concluded that He hath 
ceased to take any interest in human affairs. They speculate upon 
passing events as though they thought that mankind were formed for 
no nobler destiny than to fret out a brief and crushing existence in a 
precarious competition for food and raiment ; and to labour with 
asinine endurance for the behoof of those who, by violence, avarice, 
and fraud, have gained the ascendancy over them. God is not in 
their thoughts when they treat of the affairs of men. They deal only 
with secondary causes, while the agency of the great First Cause is 

o Isaiah xlii. 14. 



PANDEMONIANISM OF THE WORID. 293 

supposed to be confined to the saving of " immortal souls " from 
purgatory, or from burning in liquid brimstone underneath. " Order " 
at any price, is with them the chief good. They ascribe glory and 
honour to Satan, though he has established a despotism over the nations 
which rivals the mythic dominion of Pluto. Everything dear to truth, 
righteousness, and liberty, must be suppressed by armed mercenaries, 
provided only that bank, stock-exchange, and commercial speculations, 
and the " vested interests " of public plunderers in church and state, 
be protected, and preserved intact. 

Such is the pandemonianism of the world. Sin in its most heartless 
and hateful deformity reigns the universal despot of the nations. It is 
enthroned, and decorated with crowns, tiaras, coronets, and mitres ; and 
is gathering strength by fraud, hypocrisy, and murder, for a last and 
final effort to crush all future endeavours to cast it out unto the earth, 
and its angels with it. A corrupt and vicious press is the ignoble 
and servile apologist of its treachery and blood. It flatters the grim 
assassins of the people, the soul of whose institutions is the ignorant 
stolidity and cruel superstition of a dark and iron age. Its sympathies 
are with profligate kings, blasphemous priests, and savage generals : 
while no epithet is too vile, or opprobrious, for those who, having 
endured to the uttermost the debasing and ruinous oppression of their 
destroyers, seek to break their bonds, expel them from their thrones, 
and to diffuse truth and science among the people. 

While a Christian would take no part in the armed melee, he is 
convinced that nothing but violence in the beginning, in order to 
punish and crush the tyrants, can prepare the way for the ameliora- 
tion of society. This is the order, as I shall show, which God has 
ordained as preliminary to the setting up of His kingdom. But the 
conductors of the press do not understand this. It is not more 
corrupt and vicious than it is blind to the scriptural philosophy of 
the things of which it treats. It cannot see afar off, and the 
objects which are near it cannot comprehend. How applicable 
to its scribes is the exclamation of the Lord, " ye hypocrites, ye can 
discern the face of the sky ; but how is it ye cannot discern the signs 
of the times ! " — signs, which are announcing to the nations with a 
voice of thunder, that Jehovah hath aroused Himself in His holy 
habitation ; that the time hath at length come when He wiU be 
still and refrain Himself no longer ; but that He will make bare His 
holy arm, and " destroy them that destroy the earth,"" or oppress 
mankind. 

But, though the Lord hath a long time held His peace, He hath not 
been unmindful of His people, nor heedless of human affairs. The 
great incidents of history which have given rise to successive kingdoms 
and dominions, from the overturning of the kingdom and throne of 
God and of David, His anointed, in Judea, by the Chaldeans, to the 
present time, are but events predetermined and arranged in the pur- 
pose of God, and revealed in the " sure word of prophecy." Not a 
kingdom has been established, nor a king dethroned, but it has formed 
a move, which has contributed to the maturity of the present crisis, 

« Rev. xi. 18. 



294 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

■which, will ultimate in the introduction of the kingdom of God. This 
truth is beautifully expressed in the words of the prophet, saying, 
" Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever ; for wisdom and 
might are his : and he changeth the times and the seasons : he removeth 
KINGS AND setteth UP KINGS I he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and 
knowledge to them that know understanding : he revealeth the deep 
and secret things : he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light 
dwelleth with him."* It is He to whom all things are subjected ; 
" for he ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever 
he will, and setteth up over it the hasest of meny^ This is the reason 
why men and women with so little wisdom, or rather possessed of so 
much positive folly and imbecility, are able to rule the nations without 
" setting on fire the course of nature." When their wickedness and 
stupidity become obstacles to His purpose. He removes them out of 
the way, and introduces other actors upon the stage. In this way, He 
controls and regulates the world's affairs ; but in every interference 
He shapes the course of events towards the consummation predeter- 
mined from the foundation of the world. 

In ages past, God has had among the nations a people of His own. 
These are wise in the wisdom of God, and venerate His word above 
all things. Though not His coansellors, He has graciously condescended 
to inform them what He intends to do before it comes to pass. Hence, 
it is testified by the prophet, that " the Lord God will surely do 
nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets."'' 
This revelation is made that His people's faith may be confirmed and 
enlarged, and that in every generation they may know the times and 
seasons to which they stand related. Knowing the signs, they are 
enabled to discern the times ; and while consternation and dismay 
cause men's hearts to fail, they are courageous, and rejoice in perceiving 
the approach of the kingdom of God. 

This is the proper use of the prophetic word. It was thus that 
the ancients used it, and were enabled to live in advance of their con- 
temporaries. This appears from the exhortation of the apostle, who 
says, " We have a sure word of prophecy, whereunto you do well to 
take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day 
dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts : knowing this first, that 
no prophecy of scripture is of one's own disclosure. For prophecy 
came not at any time by the will of man ; but the holy men of God 
spake being moved by the holy spirit."'^ Some were not unmindful 
of this exhortation, which is as applicable to us as to them ; for the 
day has not yet dawned, nor has the day-star arisen.. Were it not 
for the prophetic word, the " heirs of the kingdom " would be in 
as outer darkness as gaol-chaplains, who burn the flesh to cure the 
soul, or administer the " Sacrament " to gallows-thieves about to die ! 
The sure prophetic word is itself a shining light, but, having been 
" put under a bushel," mankind are left enshrouded in Egyptian 
night. " Be mindful," saith the scripture, *' of the words spoken 
before by the holy prophets ;" and on the ground that this was the 
case, the apostle adds, " Therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things 

«■ Dan. ii. 20-22. ^ Dan. iv. 17. c Amos iii. 7. ^ 2 Pet. i. 21. 



THE I>IGHT OF PROPHECY. 295 

before, beware lest ye, being led away with, tlie error of the wicked, 
fall from your own steadfastness."'^ The words of the projohets to 
which he referred, related to the destruction of the Hebrew common- 
wealth. His brethren were acquainted with these prophesies, and there- 
fore knew what was about to happen, though not the day or the hour. 
Hence, this knowledge was to be their caution and security against 
being led away by the spiritualizers of the time, who wrested the 
scriptures to their own destruction.'' 

From these premises we may conclude, that as the Lord has also 
revealed what is to come to pass in these latter days, it is both our 
duty and privilege to make ourselves acquainted with it, that our faith, 
may grow and be strengthened ; our affections be detached from the 
fleeting present, and set more firmly on things to come ; that our minds 
may be fortified against error ; and that we may be prepared to meet 
the Lord as those who have kept their garments, and shall not be put 
to shame.'' It is our own faults if we are not " Light in the Lord." 
He has plainly set before us what is happening in our day, and what 
is yet to occur. Hence, while the Priests of the State Church are 
drowsily exclaiming, while war and political murders abound, " Give 
peace in our time, Lord ! "^ — and while peace-societies are with, 
infidel voices crying " Peace and safety : " — they who take heed to the 
prophetic word " know before," that the hour of God's judgment is 
come, and that destruction is at the door. 

In pursuance, then, of the work before us, namely, that of unfold- 
ing the train of events which are to ultimate in the setting up of the 
kingdom of God, I shall proceed to show the things represented in 

NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S IMAGE. 

This was a colossus in human form, which appeared to the king of 
Babylon in a dream. The head was of gold ; the breast and the arms 
of silver ; the belly and the thighs of brass ; the legs of iron ; and 
the feet part of iron and part of clay. While the king continued to 
behold it, a stone poised in the air, unsustained by hands, fell with, 
great force upon the feet, and broke them to pieces. After they were 
smitten, the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, were 
all broken to pieces together, and became like chaff, which the wind so 
completely swept away, that no vestige of the image remained. The 
image being thus destroyed and abolished, the stone that smote it 
became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. 

The interpretation given to the king informed him that the head 
of gold represented the dominion of which he was the head ; that the 
silver part symbolized the monarchy which would succeed his ; the 
brazen part, a third power which should bear rule over all the earth ; 
and the iron part, a fourth dominion strong as iron, that should subdue 
everything before it. This fourth kingdom, he was told, should be 
divided, inasmuch as there were two iron legs, and ten toes. But as 
the toes of the feet were part of them of iron, and another part of 
clay, the dominion represented by the ten toes, would be partly strong, 

«2 Pet. iii. 2, 17, IG. ^ Rev. xvi. 15.^ 



296 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

and partly broken. But, as there was a mingling of iron and clay 
in tlie structure of the feet, while the toes constituted u.nitedly the 
iron dominion, they should not cleave to one another, but should be 
independent and antagonist kingdoms. 

Lastly, the king was given to understand, that the smiting of the 
image by the stone on the feet, represented the breaking in j)ieces and 
consumption of all the toe-kingdoms b}^ the God of heaven ; who 
should set up in their place a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, 
nor left to other people. 

Such was the prophetic interpretation, which was given with the 
dream about twenty-five centuries ago. I shall now briefly outline 
the historical interpretation, and then consider what yet remains to 
be accomplished. 

The interpreter has determined the commencement of the image. 
It goes no further back than the time of Nebuchadnezzar, whose 
dynasty was superseded by a two-armed monarchy, in the reign of 
his son's son, Belshazzar, B.C. 542. This was the silver dominion 
of the Medes and Persians. After 208 years, this was overturned by 
Alexander of Macedon, b.o. 334. His dominion exceeded that of 
Babylon and Persia, extending from the remote confines of Macedonia 
to the Indus, or as it is expressed, " bearing rule over all the earth." 
This was the dominion of " the brazen-coated Greeks," answering to 
the brazen part of the image. After a few years, the empire of brass 
was divided into four kingdoms, two of which had especial relations 
with the land of Canaan upon which the kingdom of the Stone is to be 
established. These two, therefore, are alone represented in the image. 
They answer to the two brazen thighs ; and are known in history 
as the Syro-Macedonian kingdom of the north, that is, from Jerusa- 
lem ; and the Greco-Egyptian kingdom of the south. The northern 
kingdom continued till b.o. 67, when it became attached to the iron 
leg ; the southern kingdom, however, " continued more years than the 
king of the north," even thirty-seven, when it also merged into the 
iron dominion. 

From this epoch, the iron monarchy prevailed over all antagonists. 
It is known in history as thfe Roman. In the fourth century after 
Christ, it was finally divided into the Eastern Roman, and the Westei-n 
Roman, empires, answering to the two legs of iron. Though divided 
thus, the Roman majesty was considered as one. The date of tlie 
division was a.d. 396. 

In about ninety-seven years from this epoch, ten kingdoms 
appeared upon the Western Roman territory answering to the ten 
toes. They were not all strong kingdoms. Part of them were 
absorbed into a new dominion, which arose after them beyond the 
limits of the Roman territory. These strong and broken toe-kingdoms 
have existed upwards of thirteen centuries. They are still in being ; 
but not as originally established. This the prophecy does not. require. 
All that is necessary is, that there should be ten kingdoms at the time 
the image is smitten by the stone. And these kingdoms, I am satis- 
fied, shoidd be on " the earth,'' and not upon " the sea ; " that is to 
say, they should be found upon the Roman continent, and not upon 



TEE TEN KINGDOMS. 297 

the islands ; and that the enumeration of them belongs to the time 
of the end, rather than to the period of their foundation. With this 
view, then, I enmnerate the toe-kingdoms as follows : * 

1, Belgium ; 2, France ; 3, Spain ; 4, Portugal ; 5, Naples ;• 
6, Sardinia ; 7, Greece ; 8, Hungary ; 9, Lombardy ; 10, Bavaria. 

I have not named Britain, although the island was a part of the 
Roman dominion. It is, however, no more imperative that she should 
be included in the ten than Egypt, which is also on the Roman 
territory. Existing theories require Britain to be counted in ; but I 
have nothing to do with them ; I propose to show a more consistent 
interpretation that shall harmonise with other important and interest- 
ing parts of the prophetic word. 

The ten kingdoms enumerated above are all within the Roman 
limits. There are many other kingdoms beyond its frontiers, resting 
upon territory that never belonged to Rome, or the iron dominion ; 
therefore they must not be named in the same category. Nebuchad- 
nezzar's image has to do only with powers occup3nng the area of the 
golden, silver, brazen, and iron, dominions ; other prophecies survey 
the rest. 

Thus far, then, history runs parallel with the prophetic interpre- 
tation. We are not informed in this vision how many of the toes were 
weak. It simply affirms the fact ; and defers further details for 
illustration by other symbols. What, then, remains to be accom- 
plished ? The testimony informs us that the ten kingdoms are all to 
be broken to pieces ; and after they are smitten, that the whole image 
in all its different metals is to be "broken to pieces together." But 
how can this be ? Where are the dominions represented by the gold, 
the silver, the brass, and the iron ? How can they be broken to pieces 
together, seeing that they have been broken to pieces one after the 
other many centuries ago ? The answer to this question is important, 
and must be given ; for without it no interpretation can be received 
as satisfactory. And here I would remark, that the image was 
presented to the mind of the King of Babylon, not so much to 
represent a succession of empires, as to exhibit the catastrophe which 
should usher in the Kingdom of God. The idea I would convey is 
well expressed by the prophet, saying, " The God in heaven, who 
revealeth secrets, maketh known to the king lohat shall he in the latter 
days.'''' That is, there will be in the latter days a dominion, ruling 
over all the countries mainly comprehended in the limits of the 
successive empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome ; and repre- 
sented by the image as a whole ; and which will be broken by a 
power from heaven, which will utterly destroy it, and set up an empire 
which will cover all the territory it possessed. 

Now, there has never yet existed a single dominion, contemporary 
with the toe-kingdoms, and of course comprehending them in its 
jurisdiction, which could claim to be represented by Nebuchadnezzar's 
image. In order, then, to prepare for the catastrophe, the image 

« Dan. ii. 28, 29. 
•■■■ See footnote on next page. 



298 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

which, is now in antagonistic parts, must he confederated ; "■=■ in other 
words, a dominion must arise before the setting up of the kingdom of 
God, which shall rule over the toe-kingdoms, and the Turkish and 
Persian territories, till it meets the British Power in the East. The 
description of the dream says that the feet were smitten ; and " then 
was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to 
pieces together ; " thereby intimating that the breaking of the power 
o£ the ten kingdoms would precede that of the conjoint destruction of 
all the other parts. That when they are conquered, the dominion of 
the conqueror will be overturned by the revelation of power from 
above. 

I shall be able to show, from other parts of the prophetic word, 
that the Power destined to play the conspicuous part indicated above 
is Russia. That it will dominate all the ten kingdoms, subdue Turkey, 
and incorporate Persia into its empire ; but that when it has reached 
its zenith, it will in turn be precipitated into the abyss, and its 
dominion suppressed for a thousand years. When I come to unfold 
these things, the reader will see why Britain is not included in the 
ten toes. She is reserved of God to antagonize Russia, as she did 
France, when all Europe was prostrate at the feet of " Napoleon le 
Grand." The ten toes belong to the image as a united dominion ; 
hence Britain cannot be included among them unless it is first con- 
quered by the overshadowing Power, which it will not be, as is clearly 
demonstrable from many parts of the divine testimony. Russia will 
command the land, and Britain rule the sea. They will contend for 
the dominion of the East; hut neither will ohtain it. It is not for 
mortal man to rule the world, and grasp the sole dominion of the 
globe. This is an inheritance, the divine legacy of omnipotence, to 
Abraham, Shiloh, and the saints. 

It is evident that the dominion of the Image is not broken by a 
human power. The stone which destroys it is represented as not in 
hands ; that is, it symbolizes a supernatural power. If the stone had 
been poised in a man's hands ready to smite the image, we might look 
for an earthly conqueror to overthrow the dominion of the Autocrat, 
as he will overthrow the rest. But the power that wields the stone is 
plainly declared in the interpretation. It is the God of heaven who 
pulverizes the image, and sweeps its chaffy dust away by the whirling- 
tempest which wrecks the kingdoms of the world, and transfers them 
to His saints. The kingdom of the stone grinds to powder whatsoever 

■•••■ Many things liave happened since this was Avritten in ] 848, and considerable 
progress has been made in the confederation of the parts of the image. For 
instance, with reference to some of the kingdoms named : — Naples, Sardinia, and 
Lombardy have been incorporated with Italy. Hungary has been united with 
Austria as a dual kingdom by the decree of 1868. Bavaria has become confederate 
with Germany in 1870. Probably the foUoAving enumeration of the ten kingdoms 
is somewhere near the truth in 1903 : — 1, Belgiimi ; 2, France ; 3, Spain ; 
4, Portugal ; 5, Switzerland ; 6, Germany ; 7, Italy ; 8, Austria-Hungary ; 
li, Servia ; 10, Greece. There are other States on the ancient Roman territory, 
as Montenegro, Bulgaria, Turkey ; but the Turkish power is anomalous, and is 
treated of elsevvhere in Elpls Israel. 



THE LION OF ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA. 299 

it falls Upon, and then becomes a great mountain, or empire of nations, 
and fills the whole earth. 

THE VISION OF THE FOUR BEASTS. 

There were certain important particulars to be revealed in connec- 
tion with the empires and kingdoms of the Metallic Image, which could 
not be suitably expressed through a symbol of the human form. It 
became necessary, therefore, to introduce other representations, that 
would admit of appendages more in harmony with them. Wild beasts 
were selected to represent dominions instead of parts of a metallic 
figure ; and as there were four difl'erent metals, four different animals 
were selected, according to the following order : 

1. The head of gold, was illustrated by a Lion ; 

2. The hreasts and arms of silver, by a Bear ; 

3. The helly and thighs of hrass, by a Leopard ; and, 

4. The legs, feet, and toes of iron, by a Fourth Beast with Ten 
Horns. 

OF THE LION. 

The beasts being substituted for the metals represent of course the 
same dominions. The lion was a very appropriate symbol for the 
Assyrian dynasty ; as was well understood in the days of the prophets. 
Hence, speaking of the overthrow coming upon Judah by Nebuchad- 
nezzar, Jeremiah says, "I will bring evil fro7n the north, and a great 
destruction. The Lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer 
of the Gentiles is on his way. He is gone forth to make thy land 
desolate ; and thy cities shall be laid waste without an inhabitant."" 

But in Daniel,^ the Assyrian lion appears under different aspects. 
He is represented first, as a lion with eagle's wings, crouching ; 
and, secondly, as a lion without wings, standing erect, human-like, 
and with the disposition of a man. 

The lion in these two aspects represents the Assyrian monarchy in 
two phases ; first, while Nineveh was its capital ; and secondly, when 
by conquest the seat of government was transferred to Babylon. 
Esarhaddon was king of Assyria while Merodach Baladan was king 
of Babylon, and both were contemporary with Hezekiah, king of 
Jadah. Baladan, the father of Merodach-Baladan, was probably 
the founder of Nebuchadnezzar's d3masty. Merodach was doubtless 
an important member of the family ; for Nebuchadnezzar named his 
son Evil-Merodach, after him. About 106 years elapsed from the 
embassy of Merodach-Baladan, to enquire after the health of Hezekiah, 
and concerning the bringing back of the shadow ten degrees by 
which it had gone down on the dial, to the first year of Nebuchad- 
nezzar's reign ; which was equivalent to the third of Jehoiakim, king 
of Judah. It was by the 'Merodach-Baladan dynasty, that " the wings 
of the Assyrian lion were plucked ; " that is, the Esarhaddon dynasty 
of Assyria was superseded by the king of Babylon, as the destroyer of 
the Gentiles. 

« Jer. iv. 7 ^ Dan. vii. 



300 THE KINGDO]\IS OF THE WORLD. 

Before this revolution was effected, the Assyrian dominion was 
represented by a winged lion, having the form of a man down to 
the waist, and furnished with arms. This is satisfactorily demonstrated 
by Mr. Layard in his " Nineveh and its remains." In his excavations 
at Nineveh he laid bare sculptured lions, twelve feet high and twelve 
feet long. In one hand, a goat v.^as held ; and in the other hanging 
down by the side, a branch with three flowers. From the shoulder 
sprang forth expanded wings which spread over the back. The body 
was that of a lion with five legs,--'' two on the fore-end, and three on 
the side. The head, breast, and arms were human, and as low down 
as the waist. A knotted girdle ending in tassels, encircled the loins. 

But when Nine^veh's dominion was transferred to Babylon by a 
conqueror, a change came over the Assyrian lion. Daniel says, " I 
beheld till its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the 
earth." In consequence of its eagle's wings being plucked, that is, of 
Armenia and Persia being subdued, the Assyrian dominion was 
prostrated to the earth ; completely overthrown, but not destroyed ; for 
Daniel says furthermore, that, " the lion was made to stand upon the 
feet as a man." Nebuchadnezzar was at once the conqueror and 
re-builder of the Assyrian Monarchy. He made it stand erect, and gave 
it a more civilized constitution. Shalmaneser had destroyed the king- 
dom of the ton tribes of Israel, and Sennacherib had blasphemed 
Jehovah, and the posterity of his son Esarhaddon had become effete : 
this was a dynasty which had become a pest, a plague spot upon the 
nations ; but Nebuchadnezzar, though an idolator, was a man better 
suited to the purposes of God. There was more of the man, and less 
of the wild beast, in him than in the kings of the dynasty he had over- 
thrown. Therefore, when the Assyrian lion was made to stand erect 
upon its hind feet like a man, Daniel says, that " a man's heart was 
given to it." Its golden, or imperial lion-head, was responsive to 
divine impressions, and gave utterances to sentiments which were 
entirely alien from the heart of the kings of Nineveh. " I blessed the 
Most High," said Nebuchadnezzar, "and I praised and honoured him that 
liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his 
kingdom is from generation to generation ; and all the inhabitants o£ 
the earth are reputed as nothing ; and he doeth according to his will 
in the army of heaven ; and among the inhabitants oE the earth : and 
none can stay his hand, or say unto him. What doest thou ? I praise, 
and extol, and honour the King of Heaven, all whose works are 
truth and his ways judgment ; and those that walk in pride he is able 
to abase."" 

But this " man's heart,'' was not the disposition of Belshatzar, 
his son's son. Instead of praising, and extolling, and honouring the 
God of Israel, he defied Him; and "lifted himself up against the 
Lord of heaven ; and out of the holy vessels of his temple, he, and his 
lords, his wives, and his concubines, drank wine ; and he praised the 
gods of silver and gold, and of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which 

"Compare Dan. iv. 34, 35, 37, with Isaiah xxxvi. 
*The fifth leg was added to give an appearance of symmetry to the side view. 



THE MEDO-PERSIAN BEAR. 301 

see not, nor hear, nor know : and the God in whose hand his breath 
was, and whose were all his ways, he had not glorified.'' This was his 
offence, on account of which the Lord of heaven passed this sentence 
upon him : " God hath numbered th}^ kingdom, and finished it ; thou 
art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. And thy king- 
dom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians." Nor was the 
execution of the decree long delayed, for " on that night wasrBelshatzar 
the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the 
kingdom."" 

OF THE BEAR. 

The lion dominion being overthrown, the dynasty of the Bear 
took its place when " Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the 
Medes, was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans," in 542 
before Christ. It was a dominion to be extended by the sword, a 
particular expressed in the words addressed to the Bear, " Arise, 
devour mach flesh." 

In the symbolography, or description of the symbol, the prophet 
saith, that "it raised up itself on one side." Hence, one side was 
" higher than the other ; " but, before it raised itself up, the higher 
side was the lower ; therefore, the higher side acquired its more 
elevated position last. Compare this characteristic of the Bear with 
what is said of the horns of the Ram.'' The inequality of the sides 
o£ the Bear represents the historical fact that the dynasty of the 
Bear-dominion was mixed ; that is, it was first Median and then 
Persian. Darius was a Mede, and his successor, Cyrus, a Persian. 
They were allies in the overthrow of the Chaldean kingdom. When 
the crown was to be assumed, the Mede preceded the Persian ; but 
when Darius died, instead of the crown descending to a Mede, it 
passed to a Persian, whose race continued to wear it until the 
dominion of the Bear was superseded by the leopard. Thus the 
Persian side of the Bear was raised up last. 

But the Bear had also " three ribs in the mouth of it, between 
the teeth of it." This indicates that in devouring much flesh, the 
result was that its prey was reduced to " three ribs," which had 
become firmly fixed to its head. In other words, that the Medes and 
Persians had made extensive conquests, which were reduced to three 
divisions for the better administration of jDublic affairs. A rib of the 
dominion, then, represents an imperial presidency, or, as we should 
say, vice-royalty ; each satrapy comjDrehending a number of princi- 
palities. This organisation of the Bear is thus expressed by the 
prophet, " It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom a hundred and 
twenty princes, which should be over the whole kingdom ; and over 
these THREE PRESIDENTS ; of whom Daniel was first ; that the princes 
might give accounts unto them, and the king (or Bear's head) should 
have no damage." By the reign of Ahasuerus, or Artaxerxes, the 
second, the dominion of the Bear extended " from India to Ethiopia 
over one hundred and twent^^-seven provinces." Though the princi- 
palities may have been increased in number, or extent, the presidencies 

«Dau. V. 31. ^Dan. viii. 3. 



302 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

remained the same. A dominion represented bj the Bear, its 
dynastic branch by the higher side, and its three presidencies by the 
three ribs, were the principal points which distinguished the realm of 
the Chaldeans, under the Medo-Persian sovereignty, from that of the 
Lion, or the Head of Gold. And it is worthy of remark here with 
reference to the image at the crisis of its fate, that the Power which 
shall possess Persia in the latter days will be the Bear, and conse- 
quently answer to the breast of silver. We have already in the 
heraldry of nations an intimation of the power destined to act the part 
of the bear, when the Four Beasts have " their dominion taken away." 
This Power is the Russian, whose symbol is a Bear. This is so well 
known, that the phrase " the Russian Bear " is as familiar as household 
words. Russia, which already comprehends some of the Persian 
territory in its bounds, is destined to conquer Persia, and to possess 
it from India to Ethiopia. This is not conjecture, but an absolute 
certainty ; for God has declared by Ezekiel, that Persia in the latter 
days shall be a constituent of the dominion of Gog ; and, that Gog is 
the autocratic dynasty of Russia will be seen when we come to treat 
of that prophecy in its proper place. We proceed now to the con- 
sideration of the Third Beast, or, 

FOUR-HEADED AND FOUR-WINGED LEOPARD. 

This beast represents the Macedonian dominion which superseded 
that of the Bear, as the belly and thighs of brass did the breast and 
arms of silver. The Leopard -dominion was more extended than its 
predecessors ; for it embraced all that belonged to the Lion and the 
Bear, with the addition of that which had been established by Philip 
of Macedon, the predecessor of Alexander " the Great." " It bore 
rule over all the earth," or Image-territory, thas far subjugated to 
" civilization," such as it was at that era of the world. 

In the year 301 before Christ, the Macedonian dominion in its 
divisions, and their relative position, is illustrated by the Four Wings 
of a fowl, and the four Leopard heads. Alexander ruled his conquests 
for the short space of six years, when he died in Babylon of intoxica- 
tion. After a long period of war, his unwieldy empire was resolved 
into several kingdoms, of which the four principal ones are represented 
by the Four Heads of the Leopard. These were its mighty Powers to 
which the others looked up, as the lesser States do now to the great 
military potentates of the age. 

The four great Powers, or heads, of the Grecian Leopard, were : 

1. The kingdom of the South, which comprehended Egyj)t, Lybia, 
Arabia, Coele-Syria, and Palestine, under the Greco-Egyptian 
dynasty; 

2. The kingdom of the North-west, including Thrace, Bythinia, 
(%c. ; or the Thraco-Macedonian ; 

3. The kingdom of the North-east, comprehending the rest of 
Asia, and beyond the Euphrates to the Indus ; India beyond the river, 
though allotted to this dominion, revolted ; so that the Indus became 
its boundary : this was the Assyro-Macedonian ; and. 



BRITAIN AND IHE LEOPARD. 303 

4. TJie kingdom of the West, which embraced Macedonia and 
Greece. 

Such were the heads. But how was it to be determined that 
they should stand related to these four points of the compass ? This 
was indicated by the wings of the Leopard — an interpretation made 
evident from the words of the prophet, saying, " The Lord shall 
gather Judah from the four corners (in Heb. the jour wings) of the 
earth.'* The addition of the wings, then, to this beast, signifies that 
the kingdoms represented by the heads would be towards the east, 
west, north, and south, of Judea. 

A. Leopard is sometimes used to indicate the British power. 
During the war in the Peninsula, Napoleon and his generals often 
threatened to " drive the leopard into the sea " ; by which they 
meant, that they would drive the British out of Spain and Portugal. 
Now, in DanieP the dominion of Alexander, which extended into 
British India, is represented by a Unicorn— that is, a goat with one 
horn. Hence, the Leopard, without additional heads, and without 
wings, represents the same dominion as the Unicorn. Now it occurs 
to me, that the British Unicorn is a symbol representing a similar 
thing to the ^Egean Unicorn of Alexander ; and, therefore, identifies 
the British power with the Grecian I^eopard. I do not say, that the 
mind which designed the heraldry of the British power had the part 
predestined for Britain to enact in the latter days before it, when it 
inserted the leopard Unicorn. But divine wisdom sometimes impels 
men to do things the import of which they very imperfectly under- 
stand ; and the insertion of the Unicorn may have been an act of 
this nature. Be this as it may, there are indications which make the 
idea more than probable. In the first place, the British^ power is the 
constitutional protector of the Ionian Islands contiguous to the Morea 
and ancient Macedonia ; and secondly, it possesses a part of Alexander 
" the Great's " dominion in India, and is absorbing more and more of 
it every war it wages in the far east. When the Bear pushes for 
Constantinople, it is not unlikely that the British Unicorn will make 
extensive seizures of the islands in the Mediterranean'"'-" as an 
antagonistic compensation for the continental territory acquired by 
the autocrat in European Turke}^. Britain is bound to maintain a. 
maritime ascendancy in the Mediterranean ; not because she has any 
continental territory washed by its waters, but because of her vast 
interests in India, which would be greatly endangered by an uncon- 
trolled militar}^ power in Anatolia and Egypt. When the power of 
the British Unicorn shall be fully developed in maritime Greece, 
Egypt,* Palestine, the Red Sea, and India, a leopard dominion will 
again appear upon the stage of action, and be prepared for the 
catastrophe of the latter days. 

« Isa. xi. 12 ; Dan. xi. 4. ?' Dan. viii. 5. 



■•■ Since tliis was written in 1848, Cyprus lias been ceded to Britain by the 
Anglo-Turkish. Convention of 1878 ; and Egypt has been occupied by Britain 
since 1882. 



304 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 



OF THE FOURTH BEAST, OR TEN-HORNED DRAGON. 

This beast was to arise out of the Mediterranean territory as well 
as the others. The belligerent tempests on every side were to give 
rise to it ; for, says Daniel, " the foar winds of the heaven strove 
upon the Great Sea. And Four Great Beasts came uio from the sea, 
diverse one from another " : and, when he has finished the description 
of them, he states that " they are four kings (kings being used in 
Scripture oftentimes for their kingdoms, and vice versa) which shall 
arise out of the earth " ; which explains, that when he says " Up from 
the sea," he means the countries of the Mediterranean, which in 
scripture geography is styled the Great Sea. 

That this beast is identical in signification with the iron part of 
the image, and incorporates within its dominion the territory of the 
kingdoms of the brazen thighs, is indicated by " its teeth of iron and 
claws of brass.'' A beast of prey destroys with its teeth and claws. 
Like the iron kingdom of the image, this iron-toothed dominion was 
to devour and break in pieces all that came in its way, and to stamp 
the undevoured residue with its brazen-clawed feet. It was " exceed- 
ing dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly ; " and, though not 
named by the prophet, may, by the aid of history and the Apocalypse, 
be correctly termed, the Greco-Roman Dragon. 

This Fourth Beast was shown to Daniel for the purpose of re^Dre- 
senting certain things predestined to come to pass in connection with 
the ten toes of the image, which could not be suitably displayed in 
symbolic feet. The things to be illustrated were 

1. The eradication of the power of three toe-dynasties, or royalties ; 
and the subjection of their territories to an imperial dominion ; 

2. The peculiar cliaracter and constitution of this imperiality ; 

3. The part this militant power was to play in relation to the 
saints ; 

4. The time the image's feet were to continue before they should 
be smitten by the stone ; 

5. The consumption of the militant power which was to precede 
the destruction of the image ; 

6. The personage through whom the destructive power of the 
stone should be manifested ; 

7. The giving of the kingdom to Him, and the saints ; and, 

8. The nature of the mountain which should fill the whole earth. 
These eight points constitute a summary of the things designed to 

be represented by the Eleven Horns which made their appearance on 
the head of the Fourth Beast. The first point is symbolized, by the 
coming up of a Little Horn among the Ten Horns which " subdues 
Three Horns," so as to " pluck up by the roots " the regal dynasties 
they represent ; and in this way leaving only seven independent 
royalties, besides its imperial self. 

The second and third points are represented by this Little Horn 
having inserted into it human Eyes and Mouth ; and described as 
having a more audacious look than his fellow-horns, or contemporary^ 



THE LITTLE HORN. 305 

dynasties ; and '' speaking very great things," or blasphemies 
" against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle (or saints, 
styled the temple of God in the scripture), and them that dwell 
in heaven." Its character is also further illustrated by its '* making 
war upon the saints and prevailing against them," and changing 
God's times and laws. 

The fourth and fifth points are set forth by the slaying, and burn- 
ing of the Fourth Beast with his appendages at the end of " a time, 
times, and the dividing of time." 

And the sixth, seventh, and eighth, points, are revealed by the verbal 
declaration, that " the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, 
and came to the Ancient of Days, and there was given him dominion, 
glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should 
serve him ; his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not 
pass away, and his kingdom one which shall not be destroyed." 
Again, " the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and 
possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever ; " and again, 
" the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom ; " " and the 
kingdom, and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom imder the 
whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most 
High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions 
SHALL SERVE AND OBEY HiM."^ This is the dominion of " the great 
Mountain that fills the whole earth." 

There is nothing said about the heads of this Fourth Beast, whether 
there were one or more. Hence, the chronology of the symbol must 
be restricted to the Horns. The dynasties of the leopard-heads 
were all superseded by the Fourth Beast before the birth of Christ ; 
but the ten horns, answering to the ten toes of the image, did not 
make their appearance till the fifth century after Christ. The life of 
the Beast is measured by the continuance of the horns ; and the 
duration of these by the time allotted for the Little Horn to prevail 
against the saints. It is to prevail " until a time, times, and the 
dividing of time" shall have elapsed from some determinate epoch. 
Nothing is more obvious to one of these saints than that these 
" times " have not yet ran out ; because the power still exists and 
prevails against them. Upwards of 1,260 years have elapsed since 
the Horns established themselves on the western Roman territory ; 
so that the chronology of the symbol is not to be calculated from the 
rise, or growth of the horns out of the Dragon's head. Indeed, if 
we had no other data than what are furnished us in the vision of the 
Fourth Beast, we could not tell when " the time, times, and dividing 
of time " should commence. The vision only informs us when it 
shall end, namely, with the casting down of the thrones, or Horn- 
dynasties ; and the destruction of the Beast's dominion in all its 
parts by the " burning flame ; " a process which has been steadily 
approaching since February 1848, and thereby indicating that the 
consummation is at hand. 

The fall of three horns before the Little Horn which overthrows 
them, by which it becomes an eighth power on the Dragon's territory, 

«Dan. vii. 13, 14, 18,22, 27. 



306 THE KINCxDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

suggests its identity with " tlie eighth which goeth into perdition '* 
treated of in the apocalypse.'* Speaking of the signification of the 
Seven Heads of the Roman Beast, it is stated that they have a 
double interpretation ; that is, they represent the seven mountains on 
which Rome is situated ; and seven heads of government which 
have prevailed there. The seventh dynasty had not appeared when 
John saw the vision. When it was manifested, it was to continue in 
the seven-hilled city only " a short space.'' After this had passed 
away, and as history shows, 246 years after its entire destruction, an 
eighth head appeared in Rome. This was an outlaying dynasty, 
thrusting itself in among the horns from a country lying beyond the 
geographical limits of the old Roman territory. It was a dynasty 
growing out of a foreign country, and therefore styled "another 
Beast." Hence, the reason why it is written in the text referred to, 
" the Beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the 
seven, and goeth into perdition." This is also affirmed of the Ten- 
horned Beast, as well as of the Two-horned Beast, or Eighth Head ; 
because there is the same intimate connection between these two Beasts^ 
or dominions, as that which exists between the Little Horn, and Seven 
Horns of the Greco-Roman Dragon. 

John was favoured with a vision of '"i/ie wilderness,'' or territory 
of " the Holy Roman Empire " as it is styled. He saw it as it was in 
the first century after Christ. Then, the dominion which now exists- 
there had no being. In spirit he viewed it as it would appear several 
centuries after when the dominion had arisen. It was then " the Beast 
that IS ; " again, he saw the wilderness after the power had passed 
away ; he then speaks of the dominion as " the Beast that was," and 
" the Beast that is not," because it will then have gone into perdition. 
We can now say of the holy Roman Beast ^' it is ;" and from present 
appearances, shall be able to say in a few years, " it teas and is not,'" 
because it is destroyed by " the burning flame." 

The Little Horn's character has been more obvious to interpreters, 
than its constitution. In certain respects it is like the other Ten 
Horns. These were all secular dynasties. If they had individually 
possessed " eyes and a mouth," they would all have been episcopal and 
speaking Horns, like the Little Horn. But they possessed neither^ 
They were simple horns, evincing power, secular, and not spiritual, in 
their operations. When eyes look more stout than existences around 
them ; and their mouth speaks blasphemies against God, angels, and 
the saints, they become symbolical of ecclesiastical power ; and inserted 
into a horn, they present a symbol which represents a conjunct 
DYNASTY ; that is, a dominion whose executive is imperial, and which 
is constituted, either of an imperial pontiff and a secular emperor, or 
of one Head in whom is vested the imperial administration both of 
secular and ecclesiastical affairs, as was the case with the pagan Roman 
emperors. 

The Little Horn of the Greco-Roman Dragon, or fourth beast, is 
a two-fold dynasty, or dominion. Its eyes and mouth represent one- 
horn ; and the rest of the horn, another. The former is the over-seeing 

ttRev. xvii. 11. 



THE, SAINTS AND THE TWO WITNESSES. 307 

and blaspheming horn ; the latter, the secular, or mihtary horn, which 
co-operates with it, and does all the fighting. Hence, when we find 
the little horn fully developed, we may e3;pect to discover two person- 
ages, who, through subsequent ages, are conspicuous as imperial chief s 
of the western world. These, it is almost needless to add, are the 
pope and the emperor. 

OF THE SAINTS AND TWO WITNESSES. 

When the little horn appeared among the ten horns, Daniel was 
particularly struck by his blasphemous talking, and enmity against 
the saints of the Most High. The mouth of this horn is evidently 
the same as the mouth of the ten-horned, and two-horned, beasts, of 
the apocalypse.* It was the mouth of a lion, because of its roaring 
for prey, seeking whom it might devour ; as well as for its Babylonish 
affinities. " It spake as a dragon," with the ferocity of the old pagan 
emperors against the saints. Describing this mouth, John says, "It 
spake great things and blasphemies against God, to blaspheme his 
name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven." These 
blasphemies Daniel styles " great words against the Most High," which, 
of course, were very offensive to the servants of God, and aroused 
their indignation. They " contended earnestly for the faith once 
delivered to the saints " against its blasphemies ; and advocated the 
liberty of the truth, the equality of the faithful, and the fraternity of 
the children of God. This brought down upon them the hatred and 
revenge of the Popes, who stirred up all the horns of the beast against 
them, as it is written, "He made war upon them, and overcame them, 
and kiUed them." 

Daniel speaks of " the saints " and of " the people of the saints.'' 
1 apprehend that there is the same distinction to be drawn here, as 
between " a Jew imoardly " and " a Jew outivardly.'' " The saints " 
is a term which includes them both ; even as " Israel " includes both 
the natural and believing seed of Abraham. 

Because a person is one of the saints it does not therefore follow 
that he is a righteous man. This is clear from the fact that the twelve 
tribes as a company of nations are termed " the Lord's witnesses ; " 
concerning whom He says, " This people have I formed for myself ; 
they shall show forth my praise." They are styled " a holy nation," 
or a nation separated from all other nations by a divine constitution, 
by which they are made the people of God. Now this " holy nation " 
has proved itself to be "a stiff necked and perverse race ;" nevertheless 
it is " holy," or separate, on the same principle that the temple, 
Jerusalem, the land, &c., are holy. 

Bat Pagan nations are sometimes termed holy, or sanctified. 
Hence, the Lord says, " I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have 
also called my mighty ones for mine anger, &c. They come from a 
far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord and the weapons 
of his indignation to destroy the whole land." This is from a prophecy 
against Chaldea.^ These saints are declared to be the Medes and 
Persians, who were Pagan nations associated together in the over- 
^ Rev. xiii. ^ Isaiah xiii. 3, 17, 18. 



308 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

throw of the Babylonian dynasty. " I will stir up the Medes against 
them, who shall not regard silver ; and as for gold they shall not 
delight in it. Their bows also shall dash the young men in pieces ; 
and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb ; their eye shall 
not spare children."'' 

A class of persons separated in the providence of God to execute 
any work for Him are His sanctified ones, irrespective of their moral 
relations to the gospel. They are designated in scripture by various 
names. They are styled witnesses, prophets, olive trees, candlesticks, 
as well as saints ; because they are exercised in these several capacities. 
They may have to bear witness for civil and religious liberty ; 
to preach against the lion-mouth and his clergy ; to stand forth as a 
lamp before God to enlighten the nations of the earth, &c.; they may 
discharge all these functions, and yet be neither believers of the gospel 
of the kingdom, nor even " pious " as the term is. This class of 
people may be found figuring largely in the history of all European 
nations. They are the hostile party to the beast in all " religious 
wars," and wars for liberty against the despotism of popes, emperors, 
kings, and priests. In these sanguinary wars their uniform has 
been sackcloth ; yet they have devoured their enemies with fire and 
sword, and smitten the earth with all the plagues of war as often as 
they pleased. With various fortune they have combated with the 
tyrants of the world. Cromwell " tormented them (the Royalists) who 
dwelt in " England, and who drew the sword for the " right divine 
of kings to govern wrong ; " he struck terror into those in Ireland 
who worshipped the beast, and devoured them with fire and brim- 
stone from the cannon's mouth. In France, the Huguenots did good 
service against the beast. They shut up the political heaven, and 
suffered not the rain of peace to descend upon Piedmont, and the 
south, where the blood of Albigenses, and Waldenses, was crying out 
from the ground, like Abel's, for vengeance upon those who dwelt 
upon the earth. But, however successful for a season, they were 
destined to succumb for a while ; as it is written, in Daniel, " The 
little horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them : 
Until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the 
saints of the Most High : and the time came that the saints possessed 
the kingdom." 

Now, it must not be forgotten that, by reason of the Little Horn's 
empire comprehending the three subjugated horns, it is a part of the 
ten-horned apocalyptic beast as well as the independent horns ; 
therefore what is affirmed of it, is also affirmed of the beast as a whole 
including its mouth and horns. Hence, John writes the same thing 
of the ten-horned beast, and of the two-horned beast, and the image 
of the former beast's imperial head, that Daniel does of the Little 
Horn, saying, " The beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit," 
or sea, *' shall make war upon them, and shall overcome them, and 
kill them ; "'^ and in another place, the ten-horned " shall make war 
with the saints, and overcome them ; "" and again, the two-horned 
beast " causeth them that dwell in the earth to do homage to the 

a Isaiah xiii. 3, 17, 18. ^ Rev. xi.' 7. c Rev. xiii. 7. 



PAPAL BLOODSHED. 309 

(imperial head of the) first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 
And he causeth those that dwell upon the earth to err through the 
deeds it was given him to do against the beast ; saying to them that 
dwelt on the earth that they should make an Image of the Beast, 
which had the wound by a sword and did live. And it was given to 
him to give breath {-Kvevfxa) to the image of the beast, that the image 
of the beast should both speak, and cause as many as would not wor- 
ship the image of the beast, that they he killed. And he caused all, 
the small and the great, the rich and the poor, the free and the 
bond, that a sign (xapayfxa, mark, or sign) should be made upon 
them on their right hand, or upon their forehead : that no man 
might be qualified {^vyrjrai, he ahle, in a moral sense) to buy or sell, 
except he have the sign, or the name of the beast, or the number of 
his name." 

Now it is the saints who refuse to adore the imperial Roman image, 
or Eyes and Mouth of the Little Horn ; and who have not the sign 
^ upon their foreheads, or in their right hands. These are the parties 
whom the image has caused war to be made upon, and who have been 
prevailed against, and killed with all the attendant enormities of 
promiscuous massacre. The slaughter of the Albigenses in Languedoc ; 
of the Vaudois in the valleys of the Piedmontese mountains, in the 
thirteenth and fifteenth centuries ; and of the Huguenots on St. 
Bartholomew's, and at the revocation of the edict of Nantes ; the 
dragonnades, drownings, &c., are instances of the cruelties inflicted 
upon the saints by the roaring lion of the " eternal city." In the face 
of these teeming testimonies of history, the special pleaders of the 
Papacy haA^e the hardihood and effrontery to declare that the Head of 
their church has put none to death ; that their church is the pure, 
sinless spouse of Christ ! But the spirit denounces it as " drunk with 
the blood of the saints," because, in stirring up the secular powers to 
murder and massacre the opponents of Romanism and the advocates of 
human rights, it has " caused the saints to be killed ; " and become so 
dyed in wickedness, and steeped in crime, that its iniquity hath at last 
reached unto heaven, and the burning flame of war is consuming and 
destroying it unto the end. 

But, says the apostle, " the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, 
but spiritual." In his letter to the Ephesians,'* he enumerates them 
as the girdle of truth, the breast-plate of righteousness, the preparation 
of the gospel of peace for sandals, the shield of faith, the helmet of 
salvation, and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. This 
is the " whole armour of God " which " the people of the holies " are 
permitted to use. The two-edged sword of the spirit is the onl}^ 
offensive weapon they are allowed to wield in combat with the Beast. 
The impulses of the flesh would lead them to crush the tyrants wlio 
have drenched the earth with their blood, and to bruise their heads 
like serpents, but their Captain has said, " Vengeance is mine, I will 
repay." It is the impulse of the flesh, hostile to the truth of God, 
which urges the Beast to war against those who adhere to that truth. 
The people of the holies are forbidden to act under such an impulse ; 

«Eph. vi. 14. 



310 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

but to imitate Jesus, who resisted not, but committed bis cause to 
God. Unresisting suffering is the law of their spiritual warfare. If 
persecuted they must fly ; if smitten, they must not smite again ; if 
reviled, they must bless ; but withal " fight the good fight of faith " 
with the word of God, without favour, affection, or compromise, with 
any thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. 

But this may be thought to be a contradiction of what has been 
said of the witnesses inflicting the plagues of war as often as they 
pleased. How can they do this unless they contend in battle against 
the Beast ? The answer is, that the anti-Papal instrumentality of God 
in the earth consists of three classes of persons ; two of these classes 
are political, but the third is that class spoken of by the apostle as 
his brethren. The prophecy of the two witnesses is concerning two 
great parties in the ten-horned beast's dominion, which antagonize it 
in its civil and ecclesiastical policy. One party is purely secular, and 
styled " the earth,'' or democracy ; the other party is " religious,'" and 
termed " the woman.'' The mission of these is to make war upon 
tyranny, and to take vengeance upon it, and finally to be the means, 
or occasion, of breaking it up in its ten-horned and Papal constitution. 
" The earth," or secular witness, is the helper of " the woman," or 
religious witness. They have co-operated since the reign of Constantine 
more or less intimately until the present time ; their co-operation 
consisting in a determined hostility to State-Churchism, and to its 
monarchical allies. They are both more or less Republican in their 
principles. " The earth " especially is animated by a hatred of 
oppressors. Its spirit in all ages has shown itself in a terrible form. 
It is ferocious as the tiger, but it is a ferocity which is required by 
the nature of the work assigned it. The civil and ecclesiastical 
tyranny it has to combat, which is itself horribly terrific and blas- 
phemous against God and His truth, must be encountered by a spirit 
as fierce. In history, we see it exhibited in the Circumcellions of 
the first century of its operations, in the men of Munster of the 
sixteenth, the Camisards of the seventeenth, the Terrorists" of the 
eighteenth, and the Red Republicans, Socialists, &c., of the nineteenth. 
Like God's " sanctified ones, the Medes," the heart of " the earth " 
is steel, and its eye unpitying. It is ready to dash out the brains of 
sucklings, to spoil the property of the rich, and to reduce the social 
fabric of the Beast to its elemental chaos. Its political representative 
in Europe is " the mountain " in the French legislature^ — a body of men 
who are the abomination and terror of the Jesuit-priest-party through- 
out the world. 

" The woman " is constituted of heterogeneous sects. " Dissent " 
and " Non-conformity " are terms which define the religious witness 
in this country. In France she is styled " Calvinist." Her tendencies 
are Republican, as illustrated in the Cromwellian commonwealth, and 
in the constitution of the United States of America, which was the 
conjoint work of " the earth " and " the woman." This great religious 
witness is made up of an infinite variety of factions, whose contempt 
of popes, emperors, kings, priests, and aristocrats is profound ; yet, 
with all their hatred, they conscientiously- repudiate the excesses of 



"tee holy city." 311 

*'t/ie ea?^i/?.," or secular witness. These two witnessing parties, how- 
ever, are of one theory, which is death to tyranny, if not to tyrants ; 
and, in some sense or other, rally around the standard of " liberty, 
equahty, and fraternity " — three principles which are utterly destruc- 
tive, of the dominion of the Little Horn, and its less audacious fellows 
of the Roman Beast. 

But there is a third party which, although it has the deep-rooted 
enmity of truth against every form of Satanism in Church and State, 
Papal and Protestant ; and wishes success to the Two Witnesses in 
their war with civil and ecclesiastical tyranny, yet it is distinct from 
them both. It is that party described by the apostle in the passage 
above quoted. It is composed of the saints of God in the highest 
sense of the word. It is the One Body of Christ, having the one 
faith, the one hope, one Lord, one spirit, one baptism, and one God 
and Father.*^ It is styled " the holy city'' in the apocalypse ;^ and is 
trodden under foot of the Gentiles for forty- two months of years, 
till the Ancient of Days appears. It is by this class that " the 
faith once for all delivered to the saints " is preserved from 
being entirely lost. In the twelfth of Revelation they are termed 
'* the remnant of the Woman's seed, who keep the commandments 
of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." They are a 
people who believe the gospel of the kingdom of God and the 
things of Christ's name as set forth in " the law and the testimony ;" 
for " the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of the prophecy." They 
are also an immersed people ; for they keep the commandments of 
God as well as believe His word. It is their mission to " contend 
earnestly for the faith." Hence, they come into collision with all 
parties ; being antagonistic to " every high thought that exalts itself 
against the knowledge of God," whether entertained by the enemy, 
or by the witnesses, who torment him with their insurrections, or with 
their prophesyings in behalf of civil and religious liberty. 

Such, then, is the antagonism ordained of God to keep the Beast, 
or European governments, in check, and to preserve the light of truth 
and liberty from extinction among the nations. It is to this agency 
the world is indebted for the little liberty it rejoices in. This has 
been conquered from the Beast at a great cost of human life. The 
United States of America is a specimen of its handy work ; and, but 
for the incurable condition of society in the old world by human 
efforts, as happy a state of things would ere this have been established 
on the European continent, as in some degree hath been in this island. 
The Roundheads, Puritans, and Lollards, or Bible-men, laid the foun- 
dation of American institutions on the soil of Britain. They success- 
fully resisted the encroachments of an Act-of-Parliament-religion on 
the rights of men ; and by contending for the Bible (without very 
well understanding it themselves) in opposition to human authority in 
religion, gave an impulse to the minds of men, which all the powers 
emanating from the " bottomless pit," can no longer prevail against, 
or control. 

« Eph. iv. 4-6. ^ Rev. xi. 2. 



312 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

But, while tlie liberty provided by the constitution of the United 
States, and practically enjoyed in England, is much to be appre- 
ciated by the people of these respective countries, there are but few 
of them who have tasted the sweets of that liberty which dwells 
in " the Holy City." " If the truth shall make you free," says 
Christ, "ye shall be free indeed." So long as a people practically 
venerate a professional ministry, whether in the pay of the State, or 
of the people, to preach what pleases them more than " the law and 
the testimony ; " so long as they are ignorant and faithless of " the 
things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus 
Christ," and glorify themselves in religious systems, which nowhere 
on the sacred page meet the eye of the unbiassed student of God's 
word ; so long as their pulpits are closed against men who would 
reason with the people out of the scriptures " concerning righteous- 
ness, and temperance, and judgment to come," irrespective of party 
shihholeths and decrees : — so long are they strangers to the liberty, 
equality, and fraternity, which belong to the truth of God alone. 

The eye of faith sees the fairest spots of earth veiled in thick 
darkness. Its hope is not in " the earth ; " for man can neither 
regenerate himself, nor society. Any organisation of the world 
fabricated by human wisdom, must perish ; for men have neither 
knowledge, wisdom, nor virtue enough, to build a social fabric 
conducive to the honour and glory of God ; or, to the general 
happiness of mankind in their several relations of life. Our hope is 
in the Ancient of Days. " The earth " may " help the Woman," 
and consume the dominions of the Horns ; but the Son of Man can 
alone deliver the holy city, crush the Dragon's head, and reconstitute 
society to the glory of God, and the happiness of all the families of 
mankind. 

When the remnant ceased to "contend earnestly for the faith once 
delivered to the saints," " the earth " began to fail in its efforts to 
establish civil and religious liberty in the countries where " the 
remnant of the woman's seed " had witnessed for the truth so long. 
The reactionists on the side of arbitrary power began to prevail 
against both classes of witnesses, and the holy city ; and to succeed in 
re-establishing what they call " order ; " that is, such a state of 
society as existed in France from a.d. 1685 to 1789, or in England 
under Charles II.; or of which we have more recent illustrations in 
the case of France under Louis XVIIL; and Charles X.; and of Italy 
under Austria and the Pope, &c., in 1815 ! It is the "order " estab- 
lished by Satan, when he triumphs over the rights of men, and the 
truth and righteousness of the untraditionised gospel of the kingdom 
of God. Satan's adherents sigh for that " order " in Church and 
State, which will enable them to increase their power, augment their 
earthly treasures for the gratification of their lusts, and perpetuate 
their grinding and debasing tyranny over the nations. For a time 
they appear to triumph. Indeed, their ascendancy is permitted in 
the wisdom of God ; but its limited continuance is expressly revealed. 
The champions of " order " are destined to preserve their ascendancy 
until, not " the earth," but the Lord Jesus Christ shall appear in 



THE LEONISTS. 313 

power, and gloriously accomplish what "the saints " have hitherto 
been unable to effect. 

It is because of this permitted ascendancy of the dynasties of the 
world for 1,260 years, that the popular insurrections in the territories 
of the Beasts and their image, have been invariably superseded by 
reactions, which have re-established the reign of tyranny, hypocrisy, 
and superstition. Even the torment with fire and brimstone in war, 
inflicted by Napoleon on the guilty dynasties which had murdered 
the saints in past ages, at length receded before the resuscitation of 
the old order of things, which this man of the earth had so signally 
demolished. But what Napoleon failed permanently to accomplish 
will as assuredly come to pass, as there is a God in heaven who 
punishes the guilty. 

Of the witnesses and holy city, without discriminating them, 
Reinerius, the Inquisitor-General, who shed their blood, writes thus 
concerning them as a whole : " Among all the sects which are, or 
have been, there is not any more pernicious to the Church {i.e., of 
Rome) than that of the Leonists. And this for three reasons. The 
first is, because it is older ; for some say that it hath endured from 
the time of Pope Sjdvester (fourth century), others from the time of 
the apostles. The second, because it is more general, for there is 
scarce any country wherein the sect is not. The third, because when 
all other sects beget horror in the hearers by the outrageousness of 
their blasphemies against God, this of the Leonists have a great show 
of piety ; because they live justly before men, and believe all things 
rightly concerning God, and all the articles which are contained in 
the Creed ; only they blaspheme the Church of Rome and the clergy, 
whom the multitude of the laity is easy to believe." 

"The causes of their estrangement," says Acland, "from the 
Roman Church are thus stated : ' It is because the men and women, 
the young and old, the labourer and the learned man, do not cease 
to instruct themselves; because they have translated the Old and New 
Testaments into the vulgar tongue, and learn these hooks hy heart, and 
teach them ; because if scandal be committed by anyone, it inspires 
them with horror, so that when they see anyone leading an irregular 
life, they say unto him. The apostles did not live so, nor should we 
who would imitate the apostles : in short, they look upon all that a 
teacher advances, unsupported hy the New Testament, as fabulous.' " 

It is with such people as these my sympathies are found ; and it 
is to multiply such in the world that I write this book. If the reader 
would be numbered with this class of witnesses, he must " instruct 
himself " by the study of the word ; he must cease to surrender him- 
self to the clergy of Church or Dissent ; but treat all their hypotheses 
" as fabulous " unsupported by the law and the testimony : for " the 
scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation through the faith 
which is in Christ Jesus."" What more do we want than to be saved 
in the kingdom of God ? Ask the clergy, " What you must do to be 
saved ? " They will repeat like parrots, " Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and thou shalt be saved ;" but ask them, " What does believing 

a 2 Tim. iii. 15, 16. 



314 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

on the Lord Jesus for salvation consist in ?" and I hesitate not to say 
-—indeed, with the preceding pages as my premises, which I firmly 
believe to be the only scriptural exegesis of the gospel, I am necessi- 
tated to say — they cannot tell. m 

Then, like the Leonists of old, away with the clergy, the " blind 
leaders of the blind," "dumb-dogs that cannot bark," "who neither 
enter into the kingdom themselves, and them who would they hinder." 
" All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for 
teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness : 
that the man of God may he "perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all 
good works."" Here, Paul teaches, that the scriptures can make a 
man perfect in all these things ; how perverse, then, of mankind to 
neglect this instrument of perfection, and to lean upon such broken 
reeds. The Leonists, Paulicians, Albigenses, Waldenses, &c., had 
more wisdom than this. They drank from the fountain head of truth ; 
and it was only in later times, when their minds were diverted from 
this by the dazzling demonstrations of the protesting Romanists, who, 
under their early leaders, were rebelling against the Pope, and laying 
the foundation of State religions in Germany, England, &c., that they 
were ensnared in the toils of mercenaries. They merged into Pro- 
testantism, and thus an extinguisher was placed upon their lamp, 
which for 1,260 years had illuminated the darkness around. 

A writer on prophecy has well remarked, that " there is no nation 
existing which, first and last, has produced such a number of faithful 
witnesses against Papal corruptions, and tyrannies, as France. No 
people have so long a list of martyrs and confessors to show as the 
Huguenots of that country ; and there is no royal family in Europe 
which has shed in the support of Popery, half the blood which the 
Capets have shed. Who deluged the earth with the blood of the 
Waldenses and Albigenses that inhabited the southern parts of France ; 
and bore testimony against the corruptions and usurpations of Rome ? 
The cruel kings of France slew above a million of them. Who 
set on foot, and headed, the executioners of the massacre of 
Bartholomew in 1572, which lasted seven days, and in which, some 
say, near 50,000 Huguenots were murdered in Paris, and 25,000 
more in the provinces ? The royal monsters of France. A massacre 
this, in which neither age nor sex, nor even women with child, were 
spared ; for the butchers had received orders to slaughter all, even 
babes at the breast, if they belonged to the Huguenots. The king 
himself stood at the windows of his palace, endeavouring to shoot 
those who fled, and .crying to their pursuers, ' Kill them, kill them ! " 
For this massacre public rejoicings were made at Rome, and in other 
Papal countries. A medal was struck at Rome commemorative of this 
tragical event. In the words of the apocalypse, ' They that dwell 
upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall 
send gifts one to another ; because these two prophets tormented those 
who dwelt on the earth.' "^ 

This dreadful massacre was 1,260 years from the separation estab- 
lished between State-church Christians, and the remnant of the 

« 2 Tim iii. 15. 16. ^ Rev. xi. 10. 



THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOjMEW's AND THE EDICT OF NANTES. 315 

Woman's seed. In 312-3, the man child was born of the Woman 
as the military chieftain destined to cast the pagan dragon out of the 
Roman heaven. A great revolution was consummated. The world's 
religion was changed ; and the foundation laid for that awful despo- 
tism in Church and State, which has made all the families of the earth 
to wail. Constantine and his successors " ruled the nations with a 
rod of iron ; " and united in adulterous alliance, an apostasy from 
apostolic Christianity to the kingdom of the world. Thus, a Satanic 
system was established, which persecuted all " who kept the com- 
mandments of God, and had the testimony of Jesus Christ."'' The 
troubles of the witnesses commenced with the institution of State 
Christianity ; and they will not cease until every State religion is 
abolished from the earth. 

This Bartholomew massacre of 1572 marks the epoch of the 
terminating of the testimony of the two witnesses. From 1572 till 
1685 was a period of war, during which unnumbered thousands fell 
in defence of their civil and religious rights. The war was waged 
with various fortune on both sides. At first, the Huguenots were so 
far successful, that their valour and devotedness raised their leader, 
Henry of Navarre, to the throne of France. Though a Huguenot, he 
could not withstand the temptation of an earthly crown, for which he 
changed sides, and professed himself a Papist. He could not, however, 
forget his companions in arms, but granted them in 1598 the celebrated 
edict of Nantes. This charter accorded to them the right to celebrate 
their worship in every place in which they were resident previous to 
the year 1597. It permitted them to j)ublish books in certain towns, 
to convene their synods, to open academies and schools for the education 
of youth, and to fill public offices. It also gave to them a number of 
cities as cautionary towns, or pledges of security, with the privilege of 
keeping them garrisoned, and levying taxes on their own account. 
Thus there was a little State within the State. The Romanists and 
Huguenots were like two armies, or two nations, in view of each other. 
They ]iad concluded a treaty of peace, in which the king himself was 
the mediator ; and it was necessary that each of the contracting parties 
should obtain their guarantees for the future. This singular state of 
things resulted from the violation of their engagements by the Papists, 
and from the priests inculcating the treacherous policy of not keeping 
faith with heretics. 

Henry IV. was assassinated in 1610, by Ravaillac, a fanatic of 
the Jesuit order. Upon this, troubles immediately recommenced 
between the warlike Huguenots and Papists. The former were con- 
quered ; they lost all their strongholds ; and in 1628, Rochelle, their 
last bulwark, fell into the hands of Cardinal Richelieu. Thus dis- 
appeared in this kingdom of the Beast their power to " devour their 
enemies by fire proceeding out of their (cannon) mouth. "^ They had 
no longer " power to shut heaven that it should not rain ; " nor could 
they any more turn the waters of Piedmont, and the departments of 
France, into blood, and smite the earth with the plague of war " as 
often as they willed." Their political power was gone, and their 

« Rev. xii. 7-9, 17. ^ Rev. xi. 5. 



316 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

affairs grew worse and worse, tintil their total wreck in the reign of 
Louis XIV. 

" Soon after he came to the crown," says Mr. Claude, " there 
arose in the kingdom a civil war, which proved so sharp and desperate, 
as brought the State within a hair's breadth of utter ruin. Those 
of the reformed religion still kept their loyalty so inviolable, and 
accompanied it with such a zeal, and with a favour so extraordinary, 
and so successful, that the king found himself obliged to give public 
marks of it by a declaration made at St. Germains in the year 1652. 
Then as well at Court as in the armies, each strove to proclaim 
loudest the merits of the reformed." Now, however commendable 
Mr. Claude and others may deem them on account of this loyalty, 
the simple import of the matter is, that their devotion to Louis XIV. 
proved that their testimony was finished. Instead of standing aloof, 
and testifying against the despotism of Church and State, and " con- 
tending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints ; " their 
pastors and congregations had sunk down into the formalism of Calvi- 
nism ; and actually drew the sword for a horn, or dynasty, of the 
very Beast, which had " made war against the saints " with all the 
attendant cruelty of massacre, rapine, and ravishment : and which 
was destined finally to " kill them." Calvinists in the imperio- papal, 
and royal, armies, of the Beasts and their horns, have forfeited all 
claims to divine favour as His witnesses of either class. Their mission 
is ended, and the sentence of death rests upon them. In about thirty 
years after this fatal demonstration of loyalty to the monster of the 
sea, God permitted their enemies to destroy them. 

Moved by the Jesuits, who flattered his pride by persuading him, 
that for him was reserved the glory of re-establishing religious unity 
in his dominions, Louis XIV. determined to accomplish the suppres- 
sion of Huguenotism in France. The plan was arranged in the spirit 
of Jesuitism, and pursued with dreadful perseverance. Referring to 
their new-born zeal for the Bourbon dynasty, their enemies said, " If 
on this occasion the Huguenots could preserve the State, this shows 
likewise that they could have overthrown it ; this party must therefore 
by all means be crushed." Hence, Louis, and the abettors of the 
tyranny, immediately set about it. "A thousand dreadful blows," 
says M. Saurin. " were struck at our afflicted churches before that 
which destroyed them : for our enemies, if I may use such an expres- 
sion, not content with seeing our ruin, endeavoured to taste it." They 
were persecuted in every imaginary way. They were excluded from 
the king's household ; from all employments of honour and profit ; 
all the courts of justice, erected by virtue of the edict of Nantes, 
were abolished, so that in all trials their enemies only were their 
judges, and in all the courts of justice the cry was, " I plead against 
a heretic ; " " I have to do with a man of a religion odious to the 
State, and which the king is resolved to extirpate." 

" Orders were printed at Paris, and sent from thence to all the 
cities and parishes of the kingdom, which empowered the parochial 
priests, churchwardens, and others, to make an exact inquiry into 
whatever any of the reformed might have done, or said, for twenty 



THE DRAGONNADES. 317 

years past, as well on the subject of religion as otherwise ; to make 
information of this before the justices of the peace, and punish them 
to the utmost extremity. Thus the prisons and dungeons were every- 
where filled with these pretended criminals ; orders were issued, 
which deprived them in general of all sorts of offices and employ- 
ments, from the greatest to the smallest, in the farms and revenues ; 
they were declared incapable of exercising any employ in the custom- 
houses, guards, treasury, or post-office, or even to be messengers, stage 
coachmen, or waggoners. Now a college was suppressed, and then a 
church shut up, and at length they were forbidden to worship in public 
at all by the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685." Hude Popish 
missionaries, without learning, or decency, went from house to house, for 
the purpose of inducing them to abjure their religion ; they interrupted 
the preachers ; and, if the congregation forcibly ejected them, they 
complained to the magistrate, who seized the opportunity thus presented 
to suppress the meeting-house. 

" Consciences were bought up like articles of merchandise. 
Pastors were forbidden to preach beyond the place in which they 
resided under penalty of several years imprisonment. Children of 
tender age were authorised to embrace Popery in spite of the opposition 
of their parents ; who, without regard to rank, condition, or merit, 
were declared unworthy to serve the State. 

" The great majority continued steadfast. Promises of wealth and 
honours, seductions, artifices, threats, failed to shake their constancy : 
so that their persecutors resorted to the still more energetic measures, 
commonly known as the dragonnades. 

" These were a species of punishment unthought of by the 
Inquisition. Profligate and merciless soldiers were sent into the houses 
of the Huguenots. They had orders to resort to every method except 
assassination to convert their victims to Papalism ! They laid waste 
their property, destroyed their household goods, treated mothers, wives, 
and maidens, in an infamous manner, brutally struck the men ; and, 
by a refinement of cruelty, hindered them from taking an hour's rest 
until they had signed a derisive abjuration. Some, crushed beneath 
such accumulated sufferings, lost their reason ; others, led away by 
despair, suffered death by their own hands. The Dragonnades still 
live in the memory of Frenchmen, as a fearful and horrible memento 
of by-gone days. But even these atrocities were insufficient to con- 
sunnnate the conversion of the Huguenots to Romanism. 

" In 1685, as we have said, Louis the Fourteenth signed the 
revocation of the edict of Nantes. The preamble of this ordinance 
made the king say, ' We now see, with the gratitude we owe to God, 
that our endeavours have had the result which we proposed, since the 
best and greatest portion of our subjects of the pretended reformed 
religion have embraced the Catholic faith.' But this did not express 
the truth. Hundreds of thousands emigrated from- France, to seek 
asylums in foreign lands ; into every part of Europe ; and from the 
Oape of Good Hope to the American wilderness, they carried their 
faith, industry, laborious habits, and their example ; and besides these, 
two millions remained in the land of their birth, who persevered in 



318 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

their opinions beneath the sword of the executioner, and in the sight 
of the fires of martyrdom. 

" Those who had not quitted France were in the most deplorable 
condition. Deprived of their leaders, and having no regular means 
of religious instruction, pursued like rebels, they met at distant 
intervals, in some wild retreat. When they were surprised, the 
soldiers fired on them, as if they had been ferocious animals. Thou- 
sands of poor victims were condemned to the galleys, and were there 
confounded with the vilest wretches. Others were hung, beheaded, 
or burned. If a dying man, moved to remorse, disavowed in his 
last moments the Popish religion, to which he had conformed during 
his life, his dead body was dragged through the streets by the hang- 
man, and was afterwards cast into a receptacle for filth, like the car- 
cass of an unclean beast." — Ahridg. of G. De Felice. 

Speaking of the revocation, M. Saurin says, " Now we were 
banished, then we were forbidden to quit the kingdom, on pain of 
death. Here we saw the glorious rewards of those who betrayed 
their religion ; and there we beheld those who had the courage to 
confess it, haled to a dungeon, a scaffold, or a galley. Here, we saw 
our persecutors drawing on a sledge the dead bodies of those who had 
expired on the rack : there we beheld a false friar tormenting a dying 
man, who was terrified on the one hand with the fear of hell if he 
apostatized ; and on the other, with the fear of leaving his children 
without bread, if he should continue in the faith." " They cast 
some," says M. Claude, "into large fires, and took them out when 
they were half roasted ; they hanged others with ropes under their 
arm-pits, and plunged them several times into wells till they promised 
to renounce their religion ; they tied them like criminals on the rack, 
and poured wine with a funnel into their mouths till, being intoxicated, 
they promised to turn Catholics. Some they slashed and cut with 
pen-knives ; some they took by the nose with red-hot tongs, and led 
them up and down the rooms till they agreed to turn Catholics. 
These cruel proceedings made 800,000 persons quit the kingdom." 

Thus, Oct. 18th, 1685, became the epoch of the death of the wit- 
nesses. The war had been long, but the Beast had subdued them at 
last. The voice of testimony against Papalism in Church and State 
was silenced. The stillness of death pervaded, not in France only, but 
Europe likewise ; and if I were called upon to point out the darkest 
period of Bible Christl^nity from the time of Constantine to the 
present time, I should point to the interval from the revocation of the 
edict of Nantes to the breaking out of the French Revolution in 1789. 
During this time the holy city was laid low, and the symbolic 
witnesses lay dead, though unburied. Their lamps were extinguished, 
and " before the God of the earth " there was no light ; no 
lUuminati ; none to torment them that dwelt upon the earth with a 
faithful testimony against tyranny and State religion. Everything 
was sunk into cold formality, and the Beasts " and their Image "^ were 
triumphant everywhere. 

«Rev. xiii. 1, 1], 15. 



EUROPEA>v^ COKSTITUTION OF THE SIN POWER. 319 



CHAPTER II. 

ROMAN BABYLON AND THE RESURRECTION OF THE WITNESSES. 

The Sin-power in its war against the seed of the woman in the West, symbolized 
by the Beasts and their Image.— God will surely avenge His saints. — The 
crimes for which the nations are being judged stated. — The geography of the 
" Lake of Fire " where the judgment sits. — The saints the executioners of the 
Little Horn. — They are raised from political death for this purpose. — Events 
connected with their resurrection. — The three days and a half of their unbiiried 
state explained. — Their ascension. — End of 1,260 years. — Of the time of the 
Beast. 

The fourth beast of Daniel's vision, the ten-horned and two-horned 
beasts, and the image of sixth head of the ten-horned beast, are 
so many different symbols, which represent the Sin-power in its 
European constitution. The apocalyptic beasts and their image are 
introduced into the thirteenth chapter of Revelation to represent 
certain things in relation to the Little Horn, to its Eyes, and to its 
Month, which could not have been set forth in the symbol of the 
Roman dominion seen by Daniel. In this prophet, the Eyes of the 
Little Horn are said to be "like the eyes of a man," which gave it 
" a look more stout than its fellow horns." Of the mouth it is said, 
that " it spake very great things," which were " words against the 
Most High ;" and that " because of the voice of these great words," 
consumption and final destruction came upon the whole beast. 

This is the nearest approach the Eyes and Mouth make to that 
order of men called the Popes. They are represented as an audaciou?^ 
and blasphemous power, "wearing out the saints of the Most High, 
and changing times and laws ;" and concerning the saints, it is added, 
" They were given into his hand until a time, times, and the dividing^ 
of time." 

Under a new symbol, some additional information is given respect- 
ing the Eyes and Mouth in the exercise of their power, &c. They 
are inserted into an image, which is said to resemble that head of the 
ten-horned beast which had been wounded in its power, throne, and 
jurisdiction over the third part of the Roman world." This was the 
sixth, or imperial, head. Hence, the Eyes and Moath were part 
of an imperial Image. Now, when we look into the testimony, we 
find that it did not set up itself ; but is the puppet of another power 
represented by a beast with two horns, which answers to the Little 
Horn itself, minus the Eyes. The Mouth of the Little Horn, of the 
two-horned, and of the ten-horned Beasts, is common to the three 
symbols — it is mouth to them all. It is said to be like the mouth of 
a dragon ; hence it is Roman and Imperial — the speaking organ of 
the three. Now, the same things are affirmed of it by John as by 
Daniel. He says, "It speaks great things and blasphemies against 

a Rev. viii. 12 : xiii. 3, 14. 



320 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell 
in the heaven." And then it is added, that " it was given to him to 
make war with his saints, and to overcome them." It also continues 
the same length of time, which is expressed by " forty-two months " 
instead of by *' time, times, and dividing of time ; " for it is clear 
that as long as the beast lives so long will its mouth continue to 



Now, in the exercise of the power given to it, the imperial, or Papal 
image, spoke, and in consequence of its speaking it caused all to be 
killed who would not do homage to it. It also caused all its subjects 
to be marked with the sign of a cross " in their right hand " in 
ordination, and " on their foreheads " in paidorhantism ; and unless 
a man had this mark he would not permit him to ""huy or sell " as a 
spiritual soul-merchant in his bazaars. 

The symbols of this chapter of revelation, it may also be remarked, 
represent the Gentiles in their civil and ecclesiastical constitution, who 
tread down the holy city." This is evident from the testimony, that 
the beast with its ten horns and mouth of a lion, possessed " power 
over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations." From what has been 
advanced the reader will then perceive, that two parties are represented 
which are antagonists, namely, the saints and the sin-power. Hence, 
he has before him a symbolical exhibition of the sentence upon the 
serpent, saying, " I will put enmity between thee and the woman, 
and between thy seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and 
thou shalt bruise his heel." The saints are marshalled on the side of 
the woman ; and their persecutors on the side of the serpent. The 
war has been long, fierce, and bloody ; but the saints' victory is 
certain, and the destruction of the beasts and their image inevitable 
and sure. 

In the previous chapter I have briefly sketched the cruelties 
practised by the Ten Horns, the Little Horn, and the ecclesiastical 
image, upon the witnesses and the holy city (called the saints in the 
aggregate) in all the countries in which they have appeared. France, 
and the " bloody house of Austria," have been pre-eminent in the 
strife. They are dyed in infamy of every kind, which they have 
enacted on the most virtuous of the human race. In all their deeds 
of fiendishness, they have been applauded by the archdemon of the 
Papacy, who styles them his beloved sons, and the mercenary instru- 
ments of his cruelty, his " dear children." Does the reader sujopose 
that the just and merciful Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of 
those who keep. His commandments and have His testimony, hath 
looked on the fiendism of the sin-power with indifference ; and that 
He will permit their wrongs to die unavenged ? If he do, he has 
greatly mistaken God's character, and knows nothing at all of the 
awful judgments He has decreed against those who " bruise the heel " 
of His beloved. Did He judge Egypt for oppressing Israel, though at 
the time idolaters ; did He sink Sodom into the volcanic abyss for its 
crimes ; and did He punish Judah with pestilence, famine, sword, and 
scattering for eighteen centuries, because of unbelief of " the truth 

« Rev. xi..2. 



THE CRIMES OF THE PAPAL NATIONS. 321 

as it is in Jesus,''' and for killing His servants — and will He not 
avenge His elect wliom He hath chosen upon the demoniac powers 
which have continued to crush them ? The scripture saith, " Precious 
in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints ; " and " precious 
shall their blood be in his sight." If the blood of the murdered 
Abel, crying from the ground, was heard of God and avenged, what 
shall be said of that exceeding great and piercing cry, which apon the 
same principle, ascends to His throne from that ocean of blood which 
has been poured out like water from the hearts of his slaughtered 
saints? Doth it not cry aload to heaven against popes, emperors, 
kings, hypocritical and blaspheming priests, and their hordes of 
mercenaries ; and against all ecclesiastical abettors of arbitrary power 
in Church and State ? Yes, that voice, though unheard and unheeded 
by those who worship the beast and their image, continually ascendeth, 
and hath " entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth," saying, 
" Hov? long, Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our 
blood on them that dwell on the earth ? "" The hour has come, and 
the death-knell of the destroyer hath sent forth its clangor throughout 
the dominion of the Roman beast. As in the case of Sodom, though 
unseen by the eye of the flesh, God hath "come down to see if they 
have done altogether according to the cr}^." He has found it even so. 
" Their sins have reached unto heaven," therefore. He will reward 
them double for all the evil with which they have afflicted His saints. 

Such, then, is the case before us. The great national crime has 
been committed, and perpetuated, of converting the truth of God into 
a lie, of blaspheming His name, and of bruising the heel of His saints. 
All nations are guilty of this, and as national offences can only, and 
must necessarily, be punished by national judgments, retribution is 
pouring out upon them according to the word of the Lord. The outline 
I have sketched has brought us down to the epoch of the death of the 
two witnesses. Daniel beheld this, and at the same time received the 
information, that the Little Horn was to triumph over " the saints " to 
the end of the beast's life, which it arrives at by the end of 1,260 years. 
This long period having elapsed, he beheld a sight, the knowledge of 
which must rejoice the heart of every one who S37mpathises in the 
award of justice to them who are opj)ressed. He saw a revolution in 
human affairs that completely reversed every thing that had previously 
existed. Instead of " the saints " being worn out any longer, he 
saw the power of judgment given to them to take away the 
dominion of the Little Horn,^ to slay the beast, and to destroy his 
body with the burning flame, so that nothing represented by the 
symbol should be left. 

The territory which is to be the scene of this judgment is all that 
region comprehended in the Roman Dragon, and in the Austrian and 
German domain. By the Roman Dragon, I mean the old Roman 
territory, extending from the Euphrates to the German Ocean, 
including Turkey, Italy, Switzerland, Roman Africa, and the 
other countries contained within the limits of the ten toe-kingdoms. 
Upon this territory, then, our attention must be fixed if We would 

«Rev. vi. 10. ^DsLu. vii. 22, 26, 11. 



322 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

discern the progress of the events by which the beast's destiny is 
fulfilled. He is to be destroyed by the burning flame. It is evident 
therefore that the territory of his dominion will be turned into a 
region of flame, in which the populations being e^^erj^where insurgent, 
and contending with fire and sword against their oppressors, it will 
become " a lake of fire burning with brimstone."'* Into this are 
cast alive the two-horned beast of the earth, and the image, which 
before the end of its existence is stripped of its imperial character, 
and reduced to the humbler dignity of a " prophet," and that a 
false one. ••• 

What remains of this chapter will be occupied in explaining these 
words of the prophet, "The judgment shall sit, and they shall take 
away his dominion, to consume and destroy it unto the end."'' The 
judgment sits upon the whole beast, and consists of slaying and 
burning. This distinction is preserved in the apocalypse ; for whilst 
the beast and false prophet are cast alive into a lake of fire, " the 
remnant,^' or the horns that remain, are " slain with the sword of him 
that sits upon the horse, which sword proceedeth out of his mouth." 
" With the breath of his lips will he slay the wicked." This implies 
a prolongation of existence to certain powers beyond that of the beast 
and false prophet. These will be totally destroyed by " the saints " ; 
but " the remnant " are reserved for a future fate at the hand of the 
King of kings, and Lord of Lords. Daniel makes the same distinction 
in the judgment of the fourth beast. Speaking of it as a whole, he 
says, "I beheld till the heast was slain, and his hody given to the 
burning flame." The consuming affects the body ; and the destroying ^ 
" the remnant " of his political carcass by the sword. Turkey, and 
the Austro-Papal dominions, constitute the body and Little Horn of 
the beasts. These go into perdition first. They entirely disappear 
from among " the powers that be" ; as completely as a carcass cast 
into Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. After their fate is sealed, a power 
arises to conquer the toe, or horn-kingdoms, which are not suppressed, 
but made tributary to the conquering power ; and are incorporated as 
vassal kingdoms into his dominion ; and under his banner meet the 
Lord of hosts in battle in the plains of another Waterloo, called 
Armageddon, where both he and they are overcome, and lose their 
crowns for ever. 

Speaking of the Little Horn, or Austro-Papal power, the prophet 
says, " They shall take away his dominion." Now the context shows 
that the agents indicated in " they " are " the saints " with whom 
the horn has contended so long. In the twenty-second verse he says, 
" Judgment ivas given to the saints.'^ Having received power to 
judge, what use did they make of it ? This is answered in the 
twenty-sixth verse — " to take away his dominion " ; and if a further 
inquiry be made, by what means ? The reply is, by consuming and 
destroying it with fire and sword. There is a fitness in this. The 

"Rev. xix. 20. ^ Dan. vii. 26. 

*■ The complete fulfilment of tl)is came to pass in 1870, in the fall of the 
Temporal Power of the Pope. 



THE GREAT CITY SPIRITUALLY CALLED SODOM AND EGYPT. 323 

Austro-Papacy has been established by fraud and violence ; and 
shored np to the end of its existence by murder. It has fattened on 
the blood of the two witnesses in all countries of its dominion ; and 
therefore the rule of the judgment is to "give them blood to drink 
for they are worthy."" This is the fate impending over Austria 
and all thrones which have given their power to execute the will of 
the Roman prophet. 

But to this some may object, How can the saints execute the judg- 
ment written,^ seeing that the beast overcame them and killed them 
in the reign of Louis XIV. ? It is very certain that they cannot, 
unless they are the subjects of a political resurrection ; and this the 
testimony affirms they should be. But before they rose from political 
death, they were to remain politically dead, but unbaried, for three 
symbolic days and a half ; after which the spirit of political life from 
God was to enter into them ; and in consequence they were to stand 
upon their feet, ascend to power, and strike terror into all their enemies 
who beheld them.° They were to lie dead and unburied " upon the 
broad way {e7n rrjg TrXareiag) of the great city, which spiritually is 
called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified." Jesus 
was put to death in Judea ; but then Judea was a Roman province at 
the time, and therefore a part of ''the great city;'' for all the Roman 
provinces were regarded merely as an extension of Rome which ruled 
over them, inasmuch as the Roman city was made co-extensive with 
the empire by the edict of Caracalla. This empire, then, as a whole, 
is figuratively designated by the Spirit as Sodom and Egypt — as 
Sodom, because of its filthiness, and as Egypt, because of its darkness ; 
and as Sodom and Egypt conjointly, because the fate of Sodom awaits 
Rome, and the judgments of Egypt, the nations that acknowledge its 
spiritual dominion. 

The ten horns of the Roman Dragon are ten parts of this great 
city ; the most ample of which, as will be seen by consulting a map 
of the Roman empire, is the realm of France. It is therefore styled 
" the hroad way " by the Spirit. Here the witnesses received their 
death blow, which was speedily followed by their pohtical death in all 
other parts of the great city. Though politically dead, the witnesses 
were still visible, or unburied. The democracy and the Calvinists still 
existed in France ; and democracy and dissent in England, where 
thousands of the Huguenots found refuge ; but in all countries of the 
beast they were at zero in political affairs. 

In their exile from Europe, multitudes found an asylum in the 
American wilderness. There they mingled with their brethren, whose 
progenitors had expatriated themselves from Britain to escape the galling 
yoke of Church and State Toryism which was carrying itself with a high 
hand. Thus, by the tyranny of the beast, liberty and democracy were 
crushed in Europe, and simultaneously planted in American soil. But 
even there the witnesses were not permitted to rest, for they lived in 
the other hemisphere, though dead in this. Home tyranny claiming 
the right to tax the unrepresented, the descendants of the Puritans and 
Huguenots resisted, and refused to pay. A profligate and extortionate 

a Rev. xri. 6. ^ Psalm cxlix. 5-9. " Rev. xi. 8-12. 



324 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

government goaded them into insurrection, by which they became 
entitled to the honourable distinction of " rebels," and by their success, 
to that of "patriots." The struggle was between might against right. 
An arbitrary government demanded tribute, and an ignorant clergy, 
tithes ; and the democracy, religious and secular, gave them lead and 
steel. This was the old fashion in which they had been accustomed 
to " devour their enemies " during their 1,260 years contest with the 
beast. But the conflict was unequal ; and but for the suicidal policy 
of one of its horns, the witnesses would have again been overcome. 

The liberty-hating, and the heretic-slaying. Bourbons, sent a fleet 
and army to enable " liberty, equality, and fraternity " to triumph in 
America ! Not that they hated sectarism and democracy less than 
formerly, but that they hated England more. La Fayette and his 
companions, though scions of nobility, became the sons of freedom. 
Britain was check-mated ; and the model republic founded, and 
acknowledged by all the horns of the beast. There then, beyond the 
broad waters of the mighty deep, the tree of liberty, planted by the 
two prophets of human rights, spreads its ample and expanding 
branches, affording shade and shelter for the persecuted and oppressed 
of all nations, who may be fortunate enough to escape the " great 
iron teeth," and " brazen claws," of the all-devouring monster of 
the sea. 

Peace being proclaimed, the French army returned to Europe in 
1783. This proved a refreshing breeze to the democracy of that 
kingdom. " Philosophers " were hard at work teaching the people 
to despise the superstition of Rome, and the creatures that fattened 
upon it. They miscalled it Christianity ; as if the religion of Christ 
liad the remotest affinity to that of " Sodom and Egypt ! " But 
Romanism was the only view the people had of Christianity ; for there 
had been no testimony borne against it in France for ninety-eight 
years. The priests taught them that Romanism was the religion of the 
Bible, but would not permit them to look into it to see. Need one be 
surprised, then, that when the democracy arose to judgment, it should 
abolish such a Christianity as that which had destroyed them ; treat 
the Bible with contempt ; and even deny the existence of a God, who 
was supposed to sanction the falsehoods of Romanism, or to approve 
its hypocritical and licentious priests ? The liberalism of the American 
auxiliaries manifested itself soon after their return, in the appearance 
of an American party in French politics. The influence of this in 
connection with the scepticism of " the philosophers," became 
" the breath of (political) life from God." It entered into the unburied 
witnesses ; and " they stood upon their feet," ready for action. 
Thus they drew their first breath in the very city where they had 
received their death blow. 

A few words may be offered here respecting the time signified by 
" three days and a half,^^ during which the two witnesses were 
deprived of political life. The Apocalypse as a whole is a miniature 
representation of " the things which are, and the things which shall 
be hereafter ; "'^ that is, of things in existence while John was in 

oRev. i. 1, 19.- 



THE DEATH STATE OF THE WITNESSES 

Patmos, and of the things shortly to happen after he wrote, and tintil 
the setting np of the kingdom. Everything is exhibited on a smaller 
scale than the reality ; and the time of the symbols is in keeping 
with them. Thus, multitudes of witnesses are reduced to two ; and the 
years of their prophesying, to days. It would have been a viola- 
tion of the fitness of things to have made them testify for 1,260 years, 
because this is far beyond the duration of human life, which is the 
rule of speaking in the case. So in indicating the time of their un- 
buried state, the real time must be expressed in accordance with the 
physical laws. A dead body might lie in the open air for " three 
days and a half " without disappearing ; but not three years and a 
half, or three months and a half. Hence, the symbol required the 
smallest possible period capable of expressing the real time of their 
political non-existence ; and that is " three days and a half." 

The time that elapsed between their death in 1685, and their 
resurrection in 1790, was 105 years. This is a period contained in 
three lunations and a half, on the day for a year principle. It is 
harmoniously related to the " forty-two months " of the down-treading 
of the Holy City mentioned in Rev. xi. 2. That is to say, forty-two 
months equals three-and-a-half years, which, in prophetic language, 
would be expressed as " three days and a half." 

This consideration led Mr. Bicheno, a Baptist Pastor in Newbury, 
England, in 1793, to conclude that lunar days were intended. Taking 
the Jewish month of 30 days (for the 42 months of Rev. xi. 2 are 
coupled with the 1,260 days in verse 3j, Mr. Bicheno found that three- 
and-a-half times thirty, or 105 days (years), gave just the interval from 
the death of the witnesses in 1685 to their political resurrection in 
1790, in the time of the Great French Revolution. Mr. Bicheno, 
though cloudy on some points, was, nevertheless, sufficiently sound to 
be regarded as one of the witnesses. He did well in stirring up his 
own generation to the study of the Apocalypse ; and in discovering 
for us the true import of the *' three days and a half." His labour 
was not lost ; and we thank our Heavenly Father for raising up such 
witnesses, whose memory the faithful in Christ Jesus do always 
delight to honour. ■•'• 

Now, " after three days and a half, the breath of life from God 
entered into the witnesses ; " that is, after the three months and a half 
of day-years had fully expired, " they stood upon their feet." The 
death-period elapsed on Feb. 18, 1789, and in two months and four- 
teen days after, being May 4, they accepted the invitation of " a 
great voice from the heaven," saying to them, " Come up hither ! '* 
This great voice was the royal proclamation by which the States 
General were convened, and in which the witnesses took their seats as 
the third estate of the kingdom. They soon proved their existence 
there by the events which followed. They ascended to power in 
a portentous cloud, which burst upon the devoted heads of their 
enemies ; and in the earthquake which followed they shook the 
world. 

■••• The preceding two paragraphs have been re-written on the basis of Eurekay 
a later work by the author of Ely'is Israel. 



326 ^ THE KINGDOMS OF THE WOELD. 

The resurrection of the Calvinist, and Secular, democracies, in the 
great city, constitutes a great and remarkable epoch in prophetic 
time. It was 1,260 years from a.d. 529. Now when we turn to 
the history of that period, we find that it is also dignified as a notable 
epoch of the times of the Gentiles. From 529 to December 16, 533, 
a period of four years and eight months, there were published the 
celebrated code, pandects, institutes, and novels, of Justinian. 
" These were declared," says Gibbon, " to be the legitimate system 
of civil jurisprudence ; they alone were admitted in the tribunals ; 
and they alone were taught in the academies of Rome, Constanti- 
nople, and Berytus. He addressed them to the senate and provinces 
as his eternal oracles ; and his pride, under the mask of piety, ascribed 
the consummation of this great design to the support and inspiration 
of the Deity." These documents became the civil and ecclesiastical 
constitution of the Roman empire ; and as the new kingdoms of the 
west looked up to the majesty of Constantinople and the episcopate 
of Rome as the founts of jurisprudence, civilisation, and religion, 
they gradually came to adopt the Justinian as the common law code 
of their kingdoms. An incident recorded in the memoirs of Lavallette 
will illustrate the truth of this. " The events that preceded the grand 
drama of 1789," says he, " took me by surprise in the midst of my 
books, and my love of study. I was then reading the Esprit des 
Lois, a work that charmed me by its gravity, &c. I wished also to 
become acquainted with the code of the laws of France ; but 
Dommanget, to whom I mentioned my desire, laughed, and pointed 
to the Justinian code as the common law code of the kingdom." 
The institutes were published in 533, and in that year, in the case of 
an appeal by the Emperor Justinian to the ecclesiastical decision of 
the Bishop of Rome, he addressed him as the head of all the holy 
churches of the empire. 

But the Justinian code was not adopted by Europe simultaneously, 
nor in 534, when his labours were complete. He had made the Roman 
bishop spiritual head of the empire, but his supremacy was not 
acknowledged by the toe-kingdoms until about seventy-five years 
after. Students flocked from all of them to the schools of Rome, 
Constantinople, and Berytus, where they studied the law of the 
empire ; and from these centres also priests and missionaries were 
sent to propagate the faith, and to convert the governments of the west 
to the religion of the Roman bishop. When this was accomplished, 
Roman law and Roman superstition struck deep root among the 
institutions of the west. The Roman high priest was regarded as their 
spiritual father; and the emperor, as the imperial head of the divided, 
but still Roman, dominion of the east and west. This work required 
years to complete ; but when finished, as it was about 606 or 608, we 
find the contest between the Bishop of Rome and the Patriarch of 
Constantinople for the spiritual supremacy of the world, brought to a 
conclusion by the former being proclaimed universal hishop by the 
Emperor Phocas. From 529 to 604 is a period of 75 years ; and 
from 533 to 608 is also 75 years ; and between 604 and 608, the 
Bishop of Rome obtained his legal recognition, which was celebrated 



THE TIMES OF THE BEAST. , 327 

by the erection of a statue to Pliocas with the date of 608 inscribed 
upon it. 

This period of 75 years with a double beginning and a double 
ending of four years, is the period of the civil and ecclesiastical consti- 
tution of the ten-horned beast, when the Roman dragon " gave him his 
power, and his throne, and great authority."" Now this symbol is to 
*' continue forty and two months,^' which is the representative time of 
the continuance of the things represented by the symbol, expressed in 
miniature. It is the symbolical duration of the decemregal and 
imperial constitution of Roman Europe. Daniel expresses the same 
duration by the phrase, "time, times, and dividing of time; " which 
also represents 1,260 years. The beasts and their image, and the little 
horn and his eyes and mouth, are to prevail against the saints until 
the end of that period. The little horn, and the two-horned beast and 
the image, do not exist all that time ; for they did not appear till 270 
years "after'' the Justinian epoch : but although they did not all 
rise from the earth and sea, and attain to dominion at one and the 
same time, yet it is plainly revealed, that they are all to lose their 
independence, and finally their sovereignties at the end of the 1,260, or 
forty-two months of years ; so that while the ten horns will have prac- 
ticed 1,260 years from the time of Phocas, the little horn and his 
apocalyptic syonyms, will have existed only somewhat more than 1,000. 
The Bishop of Rome, however, as lion mouth of the ten horns, will have 
passed through his 1,260 years. 

Not to interrupt the train of thought before us I shall finish what 
I have to say about the time of the beast before I return to the subj ect 
of the witnesses. The prophet saith, " Blessed is he that waiteth, and 
cometh to the 1,335 days."^ The end of this period is a time of 
blessedness to the saints of the Holy City, because like Daniel, they 
shall " stand in their lot in the end of the days." But so long as the 
fourth beast " prospers " this cannot be ; for the Gentiles tread down 
the Holy City until the 42 months expire. . . . There will, how- 
ever, be no delay of the resurrection on account of the " practising " of 
the beast, because it will have to be destroyed out of the way by the 
Holy City. The prophet informs us, that all things shown to him are 
to be finished after a " time, times and a half,"*" or 1,260 years ; and 
among these wonders is the resurrection of many of the dead to ever- 
lasting life." . . . 

" Justinian's legislation (a.d. 530-3) was all devoted to the building 
up and strengthening of the Catholic Church ; while the legislation 
of the National Assembly (a.d. 1790-3) was all directed to its des- 
truction. It is a remarkable fact that these two mutually antagonistic 
and subversive systems of legislation flourished exactly 1,260 years 
apart from epoch to epoch, and that the one hour of 30 years added 
to it, or 1,290, brings us to the beginning of the outpouring of the 
sixth vial (a.d. 1820) upon ' the great River Euphrates ' . . Is this, 
indeed, the true ending of Daniel's 1,290 ? And, if so, is a.d. 1865-6 
the ending of the 1,335, as well as of John's forty and two months ? 
If it he, then there is an epoch upon us of four years in any day of 

"Rev. xi. 2. ?^Dau. xii. 12, 13. "Dan. xii. 7, 2. 



328 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD, 

which Christ may come as a thief. . . . This appears to me, at 
this writing, to be the correct interpretation of the times. It is, of 
course, impossible to say that the interpretation is without error. The 
ensuing years ivill determine this point heyond dispute. While Iwrite^ 
it is the most satisfactory to my own mind. I Iiave thought that 
Daniel's 1,290 terminated in 1864, and his 1,335 in 1909. But in 
writing the exposition of this chapter, the fact of the great earth- 
quake-resurrection of the witnesses being exactly 1,260 years after the 
promulgation of the civil law of the city, and the hour of 30 years 
added, bringing ns to the beginning of the pouring out upon the 
desolator of the Holy Land that which is determined (Dan. ix. 27), or 
1,290 years afterwards — I do not feel at liberty to persist in rejecting 
my original conviction that the 1,290 ends in 1820 ; and the 1,335 
forty-five years after, or in the epoch current with 1865-6, or there- 
abouts. "■'• 

In A.D. 799 came the restoration of the Roman empire of the west, 
or establishment of the little Latin Horn of Daniel, and two- 
horned beast, and the image, of the Apocalypse. This was 270 years 
from the publication of the Justinian code ; and 240 from the settle- 
ment of Italy, according to the articles of the Pragmatic sanction, by 
which " Rome was degraded to the second rank " among the cities of 
the empire. The fourth trumpet, which proclaimed the smiting of 
the sixth head of the Beast in its jurisdiction over a third part of the 
Roman territory, still continued its soundings. The events which 
pertained to it yet showed themselves in the wars between Justinian 
and the Vandals, Goths, and other people, until Italy was depopulated 
of many millions of its inhabitants. Under this trumpet, the 
sovereignty of the eternal city suffered a total echpse ; so that the 
imperial day shone not upon her " for a third part of it, and the night 
likewise."" This was a day and a night of years, the minimum of 
time demanded by the nature of the eclipse. 

A day of years, and a night of years, are each 360 years long ; 
for as a day in symbolic time represents a year, or 360 days ; so, if 
the decorum of the symbol require it, each of these days may represent 
a year. A scripture, or Jewish, day contains 12 hours ; and a night 
likewise. Hence, the third part of a day is four hours ; and the 
third part of a night, four hours also. An hour being a twelfth part 
is equal to 30, which multiplied by 4 gives 120 years for the third 
part of the day ; and 120 years for the third part of the night, which 
added together make 240 years. Now, if my calculation and interpreta- 
tion be correct, it follows that Rome (in which there had been seven 
sovereignties from the foundation of the city till the fall of the Gothic 
kingdom of Italy in a.d. 553) should be no more the seat of empire, 

« Rev. viii. 12. 

•"■ This paragraph is taken from a later Avork by Dr. Thomas, Eureka, an 
exposition of the Apocalypse, vol. ii., p. 680. " The ensuing years," in the 
langiiage of Dr. Thomas, have "determined the point beyond dispute." The 1,335 
years are not yet ended, for the event that marks their termination is still in the 
future (1903). The erroneous interpretation has therefore been omitted from this 
edition of Elpia Israel. 



THE RESTORATION OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 329 

from the degradation by the Pragmatic sanction until the end of 240 
years. In other words, that at the end of that period her eclipse 
should terminate, and she should once more shine forth with imperial 
splendour. 

Now, no interpretation of prophecy is worth anything which 
is not sustained by facts ; for prophecy is not a prediction of opinions, 
principles, or feelings, but of tangible and stubborn facts. What, then, 
are the facts in the case before us ? I give the answer to this question 
in the words of Gibbon. " On the festival of Christmas," says he, 
" the last year of the eighth century (i.e., 799) Charlemagne appeared 
in the church of St. Peter. After the celebration of the holy mysteries, 
Leo suddenly placed a precious crown upon his head, and the dome 
resounded with the acclamations of the people, ' Long life and victory 
to Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned by God the great and 
pacific emperor of the Romans ! ' The head and body of Charlemagne 
were consecrated by the royal unction ; after the example of the 
Caesars, he was saluted or adored by the pontiff : his coronation oath 
represents a promise to maintain the faith and privileges of the 
Church ; and the first fruits were paid in his rich offerings to the 
shrine of the apostle." Gibbon styles him " the Restorer of the 
western empire," which included France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and 
Hungary ; and from the restoration of which " Europe," says he, 
" dates a new era." Thus, Rome's eclipse passed away, and her system 
was again illumined by the shining forth of the imperial sun, moon, 
and stars, over the third part from which they had been so long 
obscured. 



330 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE "VIALS OF THE WRATH OF GOD"— ARMAaEDDON. 

Doings of the witnesses when invested with power. — They execute justice on their 
enemies. — A great earthquake. — The seventh trumpet. — Divided into seven 
vial-periods. — The third, fourth, and fifth vials, and Napoleon — England and 
the second vial. — Turkey and the sixth vial. — All Europe and its second series. 
— The prophecy of the Frogs explained. — The mission of the unclean spirits. — 
Their operation the sign of Christ's stealthy and sudden return. — The great 
desideratum in view of the Advent. 



" The time of the end,'''" styled also by Daniel *' the latter days,^^^ is 
the period of the Beast's trouble by sword and flame at the hands of 
the saints. They are to " consume and destroy his dominion to the 
end." Their success, however, in this work of blood wiU be the 
occasion of bringing up a power upon them, which will overcome 
them in turn ; and by his conquests build up the Image of 
Nebuchadnezzar, and bring out again to view the Lion, the Leopard, 
and the Beast ; of which the image will be broken to shivers ; and 
the Beasts, "have their dominion taken away by the Ancient of 
Days " ; though their existence will be prolonged for a season and a 
time," or 1,000 years, during which their destinies will be at the 
disposal of the inheritors of the Kingdom of God. 

There elapsed four years and eight months between the pablica- 
tion of the Justinian code, and that of the pandects and institutes. 
A second edition of the code, amended and enlarged, was proclaimed 
in rather less than six years after its first publication. Now it is 
remarkable, that about the same space of six years was occupied by the 
antagonists of the Beast, in the national assembly of its principal king- 
dom, in repealing, by its 8,370 degrees, the Justinian constitution of 
the empire by which the Bishop of Rome became the lion-mouth of the 
dominion, and the Roman superstition, the State religion of the Horns. 
In 533, the supremacy of Rome in ecclesiastical affairs was recognised 
by Justinian : and in 1,260 years after, that is, in 1793, the new con- 
stitution was adopted, and the Roman religion abolished. There are 
other notable considerations of the same kind which the reader may 
observe for himself in studying the history of these periods. Want 
of space forbids me going more into detail upon this part of the 
subject ; I shall, therefore, return to a brief outline of what remains 
concerning the witnesses after their ascension to supremacy in the 
sight of their enemies. 

Having responded to the *' great voice from the heaven, saying 
unto them, Come up hither ! " they were not long in making their 
power felt. They converted the States General into the National 
Assembly on June 17, 1789 ; abolished the feudal system, and all 
privileges ; and declared ecclesiastical property to be the property of 

« Dan. viii. 17 : xi. 40. ^' Dan. ii.-28 : x. 14 ; Ezek. xxxviii. 16. 



THE GREAT FRENCH REVOLUTION. 331 

the nation. In 1790 they continued to shake the monarchy with 
great violence. They suppressed aU religious orders ; and destroyed 
" seven thousand names of men " {ovofxara avQpiOTrtov) ; that is, com- 
pletely abolished all titles of nobility, not even sparing the king's. 
These things were only preliminary to the fall of the throne. " The 
tenth of the city fell;'' for, in 1792, they abolished the monarchy, 
and proclaimed a republic. On Jan. 31, 1793, they executed 
" national justice " upon Louis XVI., the representative of the king 
who, in 1685, had massacred them by thousands in cold blood. His 
Queen soon met with the same fate ; and to crown all, the worship of 
Reason was substituted for the vile superstition of Rome. The national 
justice having been carried to this extent, " the remnant were 
■affrighted.'' The reign of terror was established. They sent a 
revolutionary army over the departments with artillery and the 
guillotine to take vengeance on their enemies. Priests, aristocrats, 
•and their adherents, became bread for the avenger. The dragonnades 
were retributed by wholesale drownings, and pitiless slaughters. 
They slew 2,160 nobles and priests at Nantes ; drowned and shot 
2,000 infants, 7,641 women, and 5,300 artisans. Thus the broadway 
■of the great city became a field of blood from one end of the domain 
to the other. In the hour of their vengeance, they did not omit an 
act of justice to the heirs of their brethren, the murdered Huguenots. 
They restored to them all their confiscated estates which remained 
unsold ; and declared all Frenchmen who were not Papists admissible 
to all oihces, civil and military. 

In 1794, the saints had nearly completed the national justice for 
the present upon the French horn of the beast for its cruelties upon 
their brethren, and its impiety, and licentiousness, down to this time. 
It was truly " a great earthquake," and had produced terrible 
•devastation. The real character of the events of this epoch has never 
been appreciated so far as I am informed. They have been viewed 
too much as the incidents merely of a sanguinary conflict between 
political factions. Viewed in this light, indeed, the actors in the 
scenes can only be looked upon with horror and detestation. They 
were exceedingly wicked and depraved men ; and so were God's 
" sanctified ones " the unpi tying Medes, whom He had prepared to 
■execute vengeance upon Babylon. " The wicked are the sword of the 
Lord ; " hence, it is in this light His " saints " of the Median character 
must be regarded. Viewed through a scripture medium, we see in the 
democracy of the eighteenth century, the sword of God "bathing 
itself in the heaven, and coming down upon the people of his curse to 
judgment."" 

If the saints to whom the judgment of the beast is committed 
were men disposed to mercy, they would be unqualified for their work 
in the absence of the captain of their salvation. The saints of the holy 
•city are not appointed to take vengeance at present. This work is for 
the wicked, that the wicked may destroy the wicked. But with all their 
•depravity, the saints of the sword were no worse, nor, indeed, 
so detestable, as Charles IX., Louis XIV., the Popes, the Inquisition, 

'^* Isaiah xxxiv. 5.. 



332 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

and the savage mercenaries by whom their orders were executed. 
There has been this redeeming quality in the saints, that they have 
" helped the woman ; " and in their conflicts protected " the remnant 
of her seed " against the Beast ; while kings, priests, and nobles, have 
soaked the soil of Europe with their blood ; and celebrated their suff- 
erings with illuminations, gifts, and merry-makings .« 

A most unexpected event marked the end of the second woe which 
has hitherto been under consideration. It was revealed to John that 
the reign of terror would pass away by their giving " glory to the God 
of heaven." The democracy, which had been trained to atheism and 
blasphemy by the Roman superstition and the " philosophers," had 
decreed that there was no God when they abolished the Papal worship. 
The nation, however, did not maintain this edict for many months ; 
for on May 7, 1794, Robespierre obtained a decree from the conven- 
tion, proclaiming the existence of the Supreme Being ; and another on 
June 8, decreeing a national festival to His honour, which was 
celebrated accordingly in Paris with popular demonstrations of joy. 
Thus ended the sixth trumpet, which was to be quickly succeeded by 
the seventh and last. 

THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 

" In the days of the voice of the seventh angel when he shall sound 
(orav fxeWrj aaX-n-Li^Eiv) the secret of God shall be finished, as he hath 
declared to his servants the prophets."^ Here is a continuance of 
time specified, namely, " in the days of the voice of the angel ; " that 
is, the sounding of the last trumpet would be no exception to those 
which had gone before ; but, that as they had occupied years in sound- 
ing, so the seventh would sound through a succession of years, eveu 
until the kingdom of God should be established as revealed in the 
writings of the prophets.'^ This is the declared mystery, to the mani- 
festation of which all things are tending. 

The things which will have been accomplished when the seventh 
trumpet shall have ceased to sound are stated summarily in the 
following words : " And the seventh angel sounded ; and there were 
great voices in heaven, saying. The kingdoms of this world are 
become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Anointed {Xpirrrog) ; 
and he shall reign for ever and ever." This is the consummation, 
which is introduced by these foregoing events, to wit : " The nations 
were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that 
they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give the reward to thy 
servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, 
small and great ; and shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth." 
In connection with these wonderful events, " the temple of God was 
opened in the heaven, and there was seen in his temple the Ark of his 
testament ; " and this exhibition is to be accompanied by "lightnings, 
and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail ; "'^ the 
result of which will be the translation of the kingdom under the whole 
heaven to the prophets, and saints, and to them who fear the name of 
the Lord. 

« Rev. xi. 10. ^ Rev. x. 7. ^ Dan. ii. 44. '^ Rev. xi. 15-19. 



THE " VIM.S OF THE WRATH OF GOD." 333 

The eleventh, chapter of the Revelation terminates with the 
glorious and terrible advent of Christ. The thirteenth verse records 
the end of the sixth trumpet or second woe ; and the nineteenth, the 
end of the seventh trumpet, or of the third woe, which is consum- 
mated in the destruction of the tyrants who have for so many ages 
been the demoralisers and destroyers of the people ; and in the intro- 
duction of the era of blessedness to the world. As I have said, the 
sounding of the last trumpet is not an instantaneous blast, but a series 
of blasts in regular succession. He is the trumpeter who summons 
the nations to war throughout the time of the end, after which " the 
judgment sits to take away the dominion of the fourth beast to 
consume and to destroy it unto the end." 

While this trumpet is sounding, seven angels, or messengers, are 
engaged in pouring out " the wrath of God upon the earth," or conti- 
nental Europe and Asia, especially that portion of them comprised in 
the Greco-Roman Dragon. The portions of wrath committed to these 
symbolical angels are termed *' vials,'' which were to be emptied upon 
certain territories and powers of the Roman world. The first five 
were consecutive in their beginnings, but afterwards concurrent for 
several years. The vengeance they contained fell upon the ten horns 
of the beast, the two-horned beast, and the image of the beast ; while 
the agent, or executioner, was the French democracy, to which "power 
was given." They had first plagued God's enemies, and those of His 
people, in France ; and having finished their work there, they were let 
loose upon the other horns of the beast, and upon his little horn and 
its appendages, to plague them for their crimes against God and man. 
The democracy were invited to their work abroad by the continental 
coalition against France, in which Austria was a principal. 

The reader can consult the history of the period for details ; it 
will be sufficient for me to say here, that with every disadvantage in 
the outset, the sans-cullottes-soldievj became at length everywhere 
triumphant. They were without funds, imperfectly armed and discip- 
lined, and led on by inexperienced generals ; they were opposed by well- 
appointed armies, with all the military talent of Europe to direct them : 
but God's power was with them in a way not visible to flesh. They were 
contending with His foes, and avenging the blood of His saints, there- 
fore no power could withstand them so long as they did not transcend 
their mission. The history of these events ought to teach politicians 
that God can punish the destroyers of the earth by an agency which 
in itself is without strength or wisdom. When He takes the work in 
hand, the feeble become strong ; and the poor despise riches. His 
saints of Media " did not regard silver ; and as for gold they delighted 
not in it." Politicians speculate as though money were omnipotent ; 
and we hear *' financial reformers " predicting the inactivity of Russia 
and Austria for want of funds ! Where did the barbarians procure 
funds for the overthrow of the western empire in the fifth and sixth 
centuries ? Did the}^ not support themselves by the spoil ? Let the 
Russian treasury be as empty as it is said to be, and its expenditure 
exceed its revenue by double the alleged deficit, it will only operate as 
a pressure from within, causing her Autocrat to "enter into the 



334 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

countries, and to overflow and pass over," and to enrich himself with 
the spoil of those he is destined to subdue. 

The Third Vial. — From among the lowest of the people there 
arose a military hierarchy headed by a chief, who became the sword 
of God and scourge of Europe. It is scarcely necessary to say that 
this was Napoleon and his generals. To him, as the man of the earth 
and sword of the democracy, it was given to carry on the vengeance 
upon Daniel's fourth beast. He appears pre-eminent in the pouring 
out of the third vial upon " the rivers and fountains of waters," which, 
under his hand, " became blood." His celebrated campaigns in the 
Alpine regions and plains of Italy, abounding in springs, lakes, and 
rivers, strikingly illustrate this vial of wrath. The Austro-Papal, or 
little horn, was the principal in the war with whom he had to contend. 
The "Italian fields "''••' were the arena of the dreadful massacres of the 
witnesses by the " holy Roman " power, whose mercenaries on the 
same aceldama received blood to drink at Napoleon's hand. This 
righteous retribution is the subject of angelic celebration, saying, 
" Thou art righteous, Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, be- 
cause thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints, 
and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink ; for they are 
worthy." To this, a voice is represented as issuing forth from the 
symbolical altar, responding in these words, " Even so, Lord God 
Almighty, true and righteous are th}^ judgments."" This vial began 
in 1796 with the war against Piedmont, and ended with the destruction 
of the little horn, or two-horned beast's, dominion over Italy ; and 
with the establishment of the sovereignty of the military democracy 
of France. 

The Fourth Vial. — But the vengeance of the " earth " upon the 
little horn did not stop here. They next proceeded to pour out God's 
wrath upon " the sun " of Roman Europe. They had eclipsed him in 
Italy ; and their Corsican chieftain received imperial power, and in 
the exercise of it literally " scorched men with fire." Being now 
himself the sun of a great part of Europe, he would tolerate no rival. 
The house of Hapsburg still claimed to be the sun of the Roman 
world, which the head of the now imperial democracy resolved should 
not be. He therefore " scorched men with great heat " in his German 
wars. He executed all the wrath of the fourth vial upon the Austrian 
empire, till at length the time arrived to " fill the beast's kingdom with 
darkness." This could only be accomplished by a total eclipse of the 
Roman sun. 

The Fifth Vial was, therefore, poured out upon the beast's throne. 
The vengeance was terrific. The people of the beast " gnawed their 
tongues for pain. And blasphemed the God of heaven because of 
their pains and their sores, but repented not of their deeds." The 
power of the little horn was " consumed,'" but not yet " destroyed to 
the end.'' The battle of Austerlitz in 1805 decided the fate of its 
dominion for a time. Francis of Austria still retained possession of 

« Rev. xvi. 5-7. 

* See Milton's sonnet, " On the Massacre in. Piedmont, 1C55." 



THE FIFTH VIAL. 335 

his hereditary domain, which included Hungary and Bohemia ; but 
" THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE," says Sir Walter Scott, " having lasted full 
1,000 years, was declared to be no more, and of its ancient influence, the 
representation was to be sought for not at Vienna, but at Paris." 

But the work was yet unfinished while the Papal Jupiter remained 
temporal sovereign of Rome. Napoleon having to contend with the 
British Leopard in Spain, the Beast and the Image deemed it a 
favourable opportunity to break the yoke of their consumer. Napoleon 
had required the Pope to declare war againt England. But England 
was too good a friend to receive such treatment. He therefore refused ;. 
and replied to his demand by hurling the thunders of the Vatican at 
his head ; while Austria, energized by British gold, assembled 500,000' 
men for the war. This was in 1809. In five days this mighty host 
was broken and dispersed. The battle of Wagram reduced the little 
horn once more to inactivity ; and the Corsican avenger obtained 
leisure to extinguish the Image of the Beast. By a decree dated from 
the palace of the little horn at Schoenbrun, he annexed the Eccle^ 
siastical State to the kingdom of Italy ; and by a second decree, dated 
at Vienna, May 17, 1809, he suppressed the temporal sovereignty of 
the Pope ; incorporated Rome with the French Empire ; declared it 
to be his second city ; appointed a committee of administration for its 
civil government ; and settled a pension on the Pope in his spiritual 
capacity : all of which came to pass exactly 1,260 years from the 
capture of Rome by Totilla and his Goths. 

Thus, by the power given to " the earth," the dominion of the 
ten-horned, and two-horned, Beasts and their Image, was completely 
taken away till the fall of their consumer. The kingdoms, or horns, 
of the Beast were all reduced to vassalage, while the imperial Chief 
of the democracy created thrones, and made kings and princes of 
whomsoever he pleased. It was a glorious sight to the eye of faith 
to behold him and his democratic nobles with the Beast writhing at 
their feet. He claimed for his immediate liege subjects a population 
of 42,000,000 of souls ; with Italy, Carniola, and the Illyrian 
provinces, as a portion of his personal empire. His authority was 
almost absolute in Switzerland. He was Lord of the confederation 
of the Rhine. The King of Naples was one of his generals ; and the 
Peninsular seemed on the verge of final subjugation. Thus, an empire 
of 800,000 square miles, and containing a population of 85,000,000, 
in territory one fifth part, and in number of inhabitants one half, of 
united Europe, was either in quiet subjection to Napoleon's sceptre, 
or on the point, as was supposed, of becoming so. 

But the time had not then arrived either for the jinal destruction 
of the Beast's dominion ; or, for the saints to possess the kingdom for 
ever : nor, indeed, are the saints of the Median class the persons for 
whom everlasting dominion is intended. These are merely the con- 
sumers and tormentors of the fourth beast ; and not " the possessors 
of the kingdom under the whole heaven for ever, even for ever and 
ever." This is reserved for the saints of the holy city, styled by 
Daniel, " the people of the saints." It was necessary, therefore, to 
energise the prostrate Beasts, and to enable them once more to prevail 



336 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

against the saints, but not to kill them, as in 1685 ; for their agency 
was still needed for the perfecting of the plagues that yet remain to 
be executed for the tormenting of the Little Horn to the end. 

To compass this necessity, God had reserved powers on the east 
and west of Europe which had not been subdued. These were the 
great rival dominions of England and Russia. To the former had been 
assigned the pouring out the wrath of the second vial upon the sea. 
England began her work in 1793, and, with little interruption, made 
the sea " as the blood of a dead man " for two-and-twenty years. 
Tbe maritime parts of the Beast's dominion suffered the vengeance 
of her power ; and so completely did she clear the sea of his ships 
of war and commerce, that it might be truly said of them " every 
living soul in the sea died ; " and the waves were ruled by Britain's 
fleets alone. 

In attacking Russia, the democracy exceeded the limits of its 
commission ; for the Russian dominion is not yet of the ten-horned 
Beast of the sea, or two-horned Beast of the earth. While Russia, 
indeed, was combating for the Beasts in Italy and Germany, her hosts 
were at length everywhere defeated ; but when they stood upon their 
own soil, God shielded them from the Avenger, whose strength was 
wasted by His frost and snow. Repelled within the limits oF Roman 
Europe, the power of Napoleon dried up more rapidly than it prevailed. 
By the armies of Russia on the east, and by those of England on the 
south, the Beasts were again enabled to stand. The Eagle fled before 
the Leopard and the Bear, who at length wrested from him the prey, 
and restored it to liberty and dominion, just 1,260 years from the 
defeat and death of Teias, the last of the Gothic kings of Italy ; and 
the defeat of the Franks and Allemanni there. 

Thus far the seventh trumpet had sounded with terrible effect 
against the Greco-Roman dragon ; which was plagued not only in 
Europe, but in Egypt and Syria. In 1815, peace was finally pro- 
claimed ; " the holy alliance " formed ; the *' holy Roman empire " 
resuscitated ; and the Papal Jupiter re-instated on his throne ; and 
tlie rest of Europe portioned out according to the interests of the 
old dynasties of the Beast, and the good pleasure of the Congress of 
Vienna. But the Beast and his allies can settle nothing upon a 
permanent basis any more. *' For ever " in its decrees, extends only 
to the end of the blasts of the seventh trumpet. The " holy alliance " 
was pledged to keep down the democracy, and to maintain the 
^' order " in which the blasphemers of God's name, and the destroyers 
of the earth, delight. But after a few years, God dissolved it like a 
thing of air. 

The Sixth Vial. — The time at length arrived to make preparation 
for the restoration of Israel. The " ahomination that maketh desolate " 
had prevailed under divers forms from the celebrated epoch 529— '33" 
beginning the third year of Justinian's reign upon the throne of 
Constantinople. The dragon, of whose dominion this city became the 
seat after Constantine transferred the government from Rome, was the 
desolator of the Hebrew commonwealth. He destroyed the city and 
temple, scattered Judah, and consumed the land with fire and sword. 



THE SIXTH VIAL. 337 

These have been its works for about 1,780 years. But of this long 
period, a portion has been separated which should reach to the time 
when "that determined should be poured upon the desolator."" Now, 
that " which is determined " is the wrath of God contained in the 
sixth vial, and which is appointed to be poured out upon the eastern 
division of the Greco-Roman Dragon. 

When we look into the history of our own time, it is easy to 
perceive that the sixth vial began in 1820-'3. The other vials had 
been exhausted principally upon the western division of the empire, 
with the exception of the second, which affected the east and west alike. 
The sixth, however, is poured out primarily upon the east, and drying 
up the desolator's dominion there, pours on until its stream is com- 
mingled with that of the seventh, by which both the east and the 
west are wrapped in an universal conflagration, which terminates in 
the final destruction of the little horn, or two-horned beast and his 
prophet ; the subjection of the ten kingdoms to the dragon of Con- 
stantinople ; and lastly, their combined overthi'ow at the battle of 
Armageddon by the Lord of hosts. The details of the sixth and 
seventh vials are amplified in that portion of the Apocalypse beginning 
at the fourteenth verse of the seventeenth chapter, and ending at the 
sixth of the twentieth. But to return to the sixth. 

The sixth trumpet brought up the four dynastic powers from the 
Euphrates, which was the western boundary of their domain. They 
•crossed this river under Alp Arslan, who, at the head of an immense 
cavalry, invaded the Roman dragon. After " an hour, and a day, 
^nd a month, and a year," from the invasion — that is, 360 years 
added to 30, added to 1 year and 30 days, which is equal to 
391 years 30 days — the period of Turkish preparation to seize the 
•dragon's throne was complete. On May 29, 1453, Constantinople 
lell into the hands of the Turks, who have retained it to this day. 
The predecessor of Alp Arslan was Togrul Beg, who was constituted 
Heutenant of the prophet by the last of the Califs. Togrul's successors 
down to the present Sultan have inherited this lieutenancy, by which 
they are regarded as the political and spiritual head of the Moham- 
medan world. 

The judgment of the sixth vial is to take away his supremacy, 
and to wrest from him the dragon's sceptre. This is termed 
■" drjdng up the waters of the Euphrates;" which occurs for the 
purpose of bringing about the restoration of Israel, who by the 
•constitution of Sinai, are " a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation," 
and to whom belongs the adoption, through which "the kings of the 
east " are jorovided. Now, when the Turks obtained possession of 
Constantinople, the Catholics were doomed to one of three things — to 
turn Musselmen, to pay tribute, or to suffer death ; and for apostates 
there was no mercy. 

In June 1814, which was 391 years and 30 days from the capture 
•of the city, and the imposition of these conditions upon the con- 
quered, religious liberty and the right of apostasy were conceded at 
the instance of the western powers. This was 782 years and 2 months 

« Dan. ix. 27. 



338 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

from Alp Arslan's invasion. These facts suggested to me a prin- 
ciple of calculation in relation to the passing away of the Sultan's 
supremacy. It was 396 years 131 days from Togrul Beg's investiture 
by the commander of the faithful, to the taking of Constantinople. 
I argued therefore, from the analogy before us, that it would be 
396 years 131 days after the capture, to the time when the Sultan 
would be about to lose his supremacy at the hand of Russia, who 
was then fully occupied, in the Hungarian war. This time would 
terminate Sept. 29, 1849. I made this statement in my lectures 
in various parts of England and Scotland, when all the country was 
expressing its sympathy for the Hungarians, and the news of their 
victories abundant. My calculation was too late by ten days. All 
relations were broken off between Russia and Turkey on Sept. 19^ 
instead of the 29th. This event was a recommencement of sorrows 
for the Sublime Porte. 

The following events will give the reader some idea of the manner 
in which the sixth vial has been pouring out " on the great river 
Euphrates." In 1820, the Greeks rebelled against the Sultan, and 
after several years war, succeeded, by the aid of the western powers, 
in establishing the kingdom of Greece. In 1826, the Janisaries re- 
volted, and thousands of them were massacred by order of the Sultan. 
In 1827, Turkey lost 110 ships in the battle of Navarino. In 1828, 
war with Russia, and a general revolt throughout Albania. From 
1821 to 1831, ravages of cholera and j)lague, and depopulation of 
the eastern provinces. From 1829 to 1848, the Algerine war by 
which Algeria is annexed to France. In 1839, Egypt and Syria 
wrested from the Porte by Mehemet Ali. War between Egypt and 
Turkey, in which the Turkish fleet revolts to Egypt. In 1844, 
massacres by the Turks in Syria ; and exterminating war between the 
Maronites and Druses there. And in 1848, Russia moved her forces 
south, and took up her position in the Turkish principalities of the 
Danube, to be in readiness to avail herself of subsequent events. All 
these disasters have so weakened the Porte, that the dominion of the 
Sultan could not be preserved for a month, but for the jealousies of 
England and France against Russia, which only awaits the opportunity 
of re-planting the Greek cross on the dome of St. Sophia.'"- 

Ten years after the commencement of the sixth vial, its second 
series of plagues began to affect the political constitution of the beast. 
By the judgment of the sixth, a ninth horn was brought out upon the 
Greco-Roman dragon, which at present wears a crown. This is the 
Greek kingdom. - But there was still another wanting to make up the 
ten. This tenth horn was brought to light by the second series, whose 
beginning was marked by the revolution in Paris in 1830. The 
congress of Vienna had constituted the kingdom of the Netherlands, 
part of which lay in Roman Europe, and part of it, namely, Holland, 
beyond it. The sixth vial, however, paid no respect to the political 
geography of the " holy alliance." The beast required ten crowned 
horns to answer the prophetic symbol at the epoch of its destruction ; 

* See Preface and -Appendix. 



WESTERN DEVELOPMENTS UNDER THE SIXTH VIAL. 339 

for they are then to be unje welled that they may become the vassal- 
horns of the Greco-Roman Dragon. Hence, when the air of the Roman 
world was touched, an electric shock passed through all its kingdoms, 
producing " voices, and thunders, and lightnings " on every side. A 
thunderbolt fell upon the Netherlands, striking the throne, and dividing 
it into two. The result was the establishment of the kingdom of Belgium 
as the tenth horn of the beast. 

It is unnecessary for me to enumerate the ten horns, for they are 
the same as the ten toe-kingdoms of Nebuchadnezzar's image which 
are already named. The constitution of France was changed ; Louis 
Phillippe, the citizen king, being substituted, by a ruse upon the 
democracy, for the elder branch of the Bourbons imposed upon them 
by the "holy alliance." The kingdom of Poland was suppressed, and 
incorporated as a conquered province with the Russian empire. In 
Spain and Portugal their several thrones were disputed by pretenders ; 
and even England, though not included in either of the beasts, or in 
the dragon of " the time of the end," did not escape the vibrations of 
the air. Events on the continent gave a salutary impulse to the reform 
movement, and passed " the bill " (1832). 

Eighteen years had passed away since the blending of these first 
and second vial-periods. Two years before a new Pope was elected to 
the Papal throne. He intended to rule, he said, according to the New 
Testament ! His professions deceived the simple-hearted, and alarmed 
the despots of the kingdoms. When Satan undertakes to cast out 
Satan his kingdom is sure to be convulsed. The reforms of Pius IX. 
satisfied nobody, and tended only to create a longing after liberty, and 
a determination to free the country from the rule of priests. The hopes 
of the democracy throughout Europe were inflamed; and "the earth" 
began to tremble until in 1848 every throne was shaken to its founda- 
tion. The events of this wonderful year are too recent to require to be 
chronicled in this place. It will be enough to say that the democracy 
broke loose, and commenced a movement, which, though it has been 
restrained to prevent it progressing too rapidly, cannot be suppressed 
until the little horn, or two-horned beast and his prophet, be 
destroyed to the end, and the dominion of the ten-horned beast be 
taken away. 

The events of February, 1848, have developed the "unclean 
spirits " of the sixth vial. These are precursory to the earthquake of 
the Apocalypse, Chap. xi. 19. Its first shocks will be terrific ; 
but they are only the j)i'enionitions of worse to come. The 
earthquake, or political convulsion, which followed the resurrection 
and ascension of the witnesses in 1789, was awful, as all know who 
are versed in the history of the time. But that fell far short of what 
God is preparing for Europe. The tumult of the peoples, and the 
tempest whose bowlings are heard even now, are thus intimated by 
the prophet, saying, " There shall be a time of trouble such as never 
was since there was a nation to that same time : and at that time 
Israel shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the 
book.^ And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall 

« Isaiah, iv. 3. 



340 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

awake, some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting shame and 
contempt. "'^ 

This " time of trouble " is contemporary with the resurrection 
of a portion of the dead. It is the epoch of Israel's deliverance, 
both of the Ishmael, and Isaac, seeds ; and of the casting down of the 
thrones of the beast.^ The convulsion which effects their overthrow 
is described by the apostle as "a great earthquake, such as was not 
since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so 
great."" Ascertain the calamities of former ages, and however terrible 
they may appear, this will exceed them all. The Flood, Sodom, 
Egypt, Jerusalem, the fall of the Roman empire, were all judgments 
which chill the heart, and make the blood run cold to contemplate ; 
but times have now come over the world which will have been hitherto 
unsurpassed. The wrath of the sixth and seventh vials which remains, 
is about to overwhelm the nations with " torment and sorrow," for the 
cup of their iniquity is full. 

The more remote effect of past events will be the subdivision 
of Roman Europe, styled " the great city," into " three parts." 
This division will be the result of war, for which the governments 
are now preparing themselves, perhaps unwittingly. The tripartite 
division is attended by the fall of the cities of the nations, as it is 
written, " The great city was divided into three parts and the cities 
of the nations fell." That is, as I take it, that in consequence of the 
approaching contest, growing out of the Frog-power manifestation of 
1848, the ten kingdoms will lose their independence ; by which a 
new partition of the Roman world will ensue ; and that when this 
is brought to pass, events will flow more directly eastward. But 
before " the cities fall," or as Daniel expresses it, " the thrones are 
cast down," Rome comes in for her final overthrow. I say " before," 
because these kings are to be parties to her tormenting, and are to 
" bewail and lament for her," to them, unexpected doom. " Judgment " 
hath then to be given to Zion ; for as yet she hath in no part 
performed her mission. Then are prostrated the horns, the little 
horn, and the image of the beast, and consumed their dominion ; but 
in connection with this earthquake of the last vial, she has " to destroy 
it to the endy 

They are repressed for the moment ; but things are progressing 
in such a direction as to bring the power of the democracy to bear 
against Austria and Rome, perhaps through France and Prussia. ••'' 
When they have done their work, the earth must be again repressed 
and suppressed, -as they were in 1814 and 1815, by a power, however, 
that will subdue all for itself. There will be no more resuscitation of 
the old governments, but all things will be absorbed into one contin- 
ental dominion upon the old Roman domain. In the midst of this 
great commotion, Britain promotes the colonization of Judea, which is 
an event pertaining to the sixth vial. By this time, Turkey is no 
more ; and Constantinople acknowledges the sceptre of the Autocrat. 

« Dan. xii. 1, 2. ^ Dan. vii. 9. « Rev. xvi, 18. 
* And so it has come to pass (1866-1870). 



THE GREAT CITY IN " THE TIME OF TROUBLE." 341 

England and the Russian lead on the world to the day of doom. They 
advance their hosts to "the wine-press without the city, ""^ which is 
called Armageddon^ in the Hebrew tongue, and geographically 
situated in the land of Israel." There " as a cloud to cover the land " 
the armed multitudes are assembled, and preparing to decide the fate 
of Asia by the sword. 

But there falls upon them " a great hail out of heaven." Their 
power is broken ; Judah is saved ; Messiah, appears '' asa thief ; " the 
Roman Dragon is bound ; and the restoration of the kingdom and 
throne of David is commenced. Such is an outline of the results to 
be brought about by the "mighty earthquake" whose premonitions 
have already revealed what is hereafter to come to pass. In the coming 
tumult, " great Babylon comes into remembrance before God, to give 
unto her the cup of wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every 
island disappears, and the mountains are not found. And there falls 
upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of 
a talent : and men blaspheme God because of the plague of the hail ; 
for the plague thereof will be exceeding great. "'^ 

"THREE UNCLEAN SPIRITS LIKE FROGS." 

But the second series having commenced in 1848, and the demo- 
cracy which caused it having been repressed to a considerable extent, 
what agency remains, as revealed in the scriptures of truth, by which 
is to be brought about the wonderful consummation we have been con- 
sidering? The answer to this question is contained in the followicg 
words. " I saw," says the apostle, " three unclean spirits like Frogs 
out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and 
out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of 
demons (oat/>«oj^wj/) working wonders {iroLowra (rrjfjieia) and they go forth 
to the kings of the earth, and of the whole habitable {oLKovfxevr]Q oX-qg) 
to assemble them to the war (eig ttoXejiov) of that great day of God the 
Almighty. And he gathered them together into a place called in the 
Hebrew tongue, Armageddon."^ 

In this passage we have to consider the " three unclean spirits like 
frogs," THE THREE MOUTHS out of which they proceed, the parties to whom 
they go forth, and the fruit of their mission. There are three spirits, 
and three mouths, that is, one spirit proceeding out of each mouth ; 
but as they are all three like frogs and unclean, though proceeding from 
three different mouths, they are in nature, origin, and tendency, the 
same. They are called " the spirits of demons," not because of their 
uncleanness, or wickedness ; but because the mouths from which they 
issue are the demons, or chiefs, of the dominions represented by the 
dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. 

Now the throne of the dragon is Constantino-pie ; that of the 
two-horned beast, Vienna ; and that of the image of the beast, Rome. 
The thrones being in these cities, it follows that the demon of the 
dragon is the Sultan ; the demon of the two-horned beast, the 
Emperor of Austria ; and the demon of the image, the False Prophet 

«Rev. xiv. 20. ^Rev. xvi. 16. <= Ezek. xxxix. 4 ; Dan. xi. 41, 45. 
dRev. xvi. 19-21. •'Rev. xvi. 13-16. 



342 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

himself. It is worthy of observation here, that the text says, " out 
of the mouth of the false prophet," and not " out of the mouth of 
the image of the beast." In the beginning of the chapter, while 
the first vial is supposed to be pouring out, the Papal Jupiter is 
styled the beast's image ; but in the thirteenth verse of the same 
chapter (Rev. xvi.), while the spirits are at work, he is termed the ialse 
prophet ; and in verse twenty of chapter nineteen also, where it speaks 
of his perdition. This change of style is by no means accidental. 

If the reader take a view of the Papal dominion at the close of 
the last century ; then view it as it is now, and compare the views 
together ; he will doubtless come to the conclusion, that the Pope 
is no longer the image of the imperial head of the beast. He has 
no dominion really, for it is so far consumed, that what remains 
is of little, or no account. He has good will enough to make 
terrible examples of the democrats who caused his flight from 
Pome ; but he cannot carry it into effect, because the French will 
not permit him. He is a fugitive in exile, and though pressed to 
return to Rome, he is afraid to go."--- He is then no longer imperial, 
and consequently, has fallen from his Iconism, and become a 
simple prophet. 

Protestant and Papal scribes are in the habit of applying the 
epithet " false prophet " to Mohammed, and therefore do not perceive 
its applicability to the Roman bishop. But neither Mohammed, nor 
his successors, are termed " the false prophet " in the Apocalypse. 
The Arabian was false enough, doubtless ; but he was a far more 
respectable character than any Pope that has ever reigned ; and were 
I to choose between the two superstitions, I would rather be a Moslem 
than a Papist. It was the glory of Mohammed to destroy idolatry : 
it is the infamy of the Popes to be the high priests of the " queen of 
heaven." The Saracens were God's locusts to torment, and the 
Ottomans, God's cavalry to slay with political death, the Catholic 
image-worshippers of the Asiatic third part of the Roman dragon. 
Mohammed was the star ; and his successors, the *' commanders of 
the faithful," the " angel of the bottomless pit ; whose name in the 
Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name 
ApoUyon."" These names in English signify Destroyer, which is 
indicative of the mission of those who marshalled themselves under 
the standard of the Arabian. 

The epithet " false prophet " is singularly applicable to the 
Roman bishop. It is a part of his function to preach or prophesy ; 
that is, to " speak unto men to edification, and exhortation, and 
comfort."^ From him these blessings are supposed to flow to all " his 
children." Aaron was given to Moses to be his prophet because he 
could speak well. As Aaron, then, was speaker, mouth, or prophet, 
to Moses ; so the Pope is now the mouth, or prophet, or speaker, of 

« Rev. ix. 1, 11. ^1 Cor. xiv. 3. 

"••• Written in 1849. Pius IX. fled from the Revolution to Gaeta in November, 
1848, and returned to Rome in ]850. It was not until 1870 that the fall of the 
Temporal Power was perfected. 



THE " DEMONS." 34,3 

tlie Papacy, and no more. He is virtually stripped of his dominion ; 
lie can prophesy, but his rule is a thing of name, and not a fact. A 
false prophet is he ; truthless as Satan ; sporting himself with his own 
deceivings, and thereby provoking a speedy fate, which is " capture 
and destruction." 

But, before he and the two-horned beast before whom he is now 
working, perish in the European fiery lake they are blowing into a 
flame, they must fulfil the mission to which they are appointed under 
this series of the sixth vial. The Sultan,. the Pope, and the Emperor, 
are the " demons " of the crisis, and the mouths, or speakers, of the 
systems to which they belong. Forth from them are to proceed such 
measures of policy as will produce a general war. These political 
measures are symbolised as "unclean spirits." They are "spirits,^' 
or influences, exerted through the policy of the three governments ; 
and " unclean,'^ because nothing clean can proceed out of such 
mouths. Rome, Vienna, and Constantinople, are so many centres of 
intrigue, whence proceeds the evil that is to ruin the beast. From 
these are to go forth to " the kings of the earth," and to " the kings 
of the whole habitable," the results of the intrigues, which will stir 
up all their propensities to war. The " kings of the earth" are here 
distinguished from the " kings of the habitable." The former are the 
kings of Germany and Russia, &c.; while the latter are the kings of 
Roman Europe, such as of Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, 
Naples, and Greece. They are all to be involved in war by the 
" unclean spirits " of tlie three demons, whose policy will bring about 
results that will ruin themselves, and astonish the world. , 

But why are these three political influences likened to frogs ? 
" I saw," says the apostle, " three unclean spirits like frogs come out 
of these mouths." The interpretation, I conceive, is this. The frogs 
are the heraldic syvibol of a power, which at the prophetic crisis is 
to be the proximate cause of the several policies which characterise the 
demon-mouths. That is to say, if this frog-power had not struck out 
a new course of operation which deranged everything, there would 
have been no ground for the Sultan, the Emperor, and the Pope, to 
change their policy, and all things would have gone on as usual. The 
frogs, therefore, and " the spirits," stand related to each other as cause 
and effect, the " demons " being only the media through which the 
frog-power brings about the fatalities of the two-horned beast and the 
false prophet ; and at the same time brings upon the arena a power 
which is to overtop the horns, repress the frog-power itself, and build 
up the image of Nebuchadnezzar, preparatory to its being shivered to 
pieces on the mountains of Israel. 

In other words, the scenery of the thirteenth and fourteenth 
verses of this chapter is a symbolical representation of the working of 
things unto the judgment, when ''they shall take away his dominion 
to consume and to destroy it to the end.'''' Who " they " are to whom 
the work of destruction is committed is obvious from the twenty-second 
verse, where it is written, " judgment was given to the saints,'' that is, 
in the higher sense, who do their work coevally with " the people of 

"Tan. vii. 20. 



314 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

the saints," or saints of the holy city, assuming the ruling-judgment 
" under the whole heaven." 

Now, from the evidence I am about to adduce, I think, I shall be 
able to convince the reader, that " the Frogs " are the symbol of the 
French democracy, the old enemy of the Beasts and their Image. The 
testimony to establish this is as follows, gleaned from Elliot's Horce 
A'pocalypticce. 

1. Montfaucon, in his Monumens de la Monarchie Francaise, p. 4, 
plate vi., gives a Frog as one of the monuments of the French king, 
Childeric ; thus writing respecting it, " 3. Another medal represent- 
ing a frog, which was also an Egyptian symbol." This was found 
A.D. 1623, at St. Brice, near Tournay, with other things belonging to 
Childeric. He reigned a.d. 456. That is, before the Franks 
acknowledged the Roman Bishop. 




Medal of a Frog found in the tomb of Childeric I. 

2. In the Monde Primitif, corn-pare avec le Monde Moderne, par 
M. Court de Gebelin, Paris, 1781, the author thus writes, p. 181, 
" Nous venous de voir que les Armoiries de la Guyenne sont an leopard, 
celles des Celtes (surtout les Belgiques) etoient un lion, et celles des 
Francs un crapaud. Le Crapaud designe les marais dont 
sortirent les Francs." And again, on p. 195, " La Cosmographie de 
Munster (1. ii.) nous a transmit un fait tres remarquable dans ce genre. 
Marcomir, Roi des Francs, ayant penetre de la Westphalie dans le 
Tongre, vit en songe une figure a trois tetes, 1' une de lion, I'autre 
d'aigle, la troisieme de crapaud. II consulta la dessus, ajoute on, un 
celebre Druide de la contree, appele Al Runus ; et celuici I'assura 
que cette figure designoit les trois puissances qui auroient regne 
successivemens sur les Gaules ; les Celtes dont le symbole etoit 
le lion, les Romains designes par Vaigle, et les Francs par le crapaud, 
a cause de leur marais. "■••' 

■••The folloAving translation will serve for those who do not understand French, 
— In M. Court de Gebelin's work, styled " The Primitive World compared with the 
Modern World," he says, " The armorial bearings of Guyenne are a leopard ; those 
of the Celts (especially of the Belgians) are a lion ; and of the French a frog. The 
fi-og represents the marshes whence the French sp)rung." And again, " The 
Cosmography of Munster has transmitted to us a very remarkable fact of this kind. 
Marcomir, king of the French, having penetrated from Westphalia into Tongres, 
saw in a dream a figure with three heads, the one of a lion, the other of an eagle, 
and the third of a frog. He consulted there, it is added, a celebrated druid of the 
country, named Al Runus ; who assured him that this figure represented the three 
powers which had reigned successively over the Gauls ; the Celts whose symbol 
was the lion ; the Romans designated by the eagle, and the Francs by the frog, 
because of their marshes." 



THE FROGS AS HERALDIC SYMBOLS. 



345 



3. In the sixth century, xlvi. of the prophecies of Nostra Damns 
(p. 251), translated by Garencieres of London, 1672, occur the 
following lines : 

Unjuste sera un exil envoye 
Par pestilence aux confins de non seigle ; 
Response an ronge le fera desvoye, 
Roi retirant a la Rane et a 1' aigle. 

On which, Garencieres observes : " By the eagle he meaneth the 
Emperor ; and by the frog, the King of France ; for, before he took 
the fleur de luce, the French bore three frogs ^ 

4. In Pynson's edition of Fahyans Chronicle, at the beginning of 
the account of Pharamond (the first king of the Franks, who reigned 
at Treves about a.d. 420), there is a shield of arms bearing three 
frogs (p. 37, Ellis' edit.), with the words beneath : 




This is the Olde Armys of France. 

The banner underneath, having upon it the three frogs, is from 
ancient tapestry in the cathedral of Rheims, representing battle 
scenes of Clovis, who is said to have been baptised there upon his 
conversion to Romanism. 




The Banner of Clc 



346 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

The next engraving is from the Franciscan church at Innspruck ; 
where is a row of tall bronze figures, twenty-three in number, repre- 
senting principally the most distinguished personages of the House 
of Austria ; the armour and costumes being those chiefly of the 16th 
century, and the workmanship excellent. Among them is Clovis, 
king of France, and on his shield three fleur de lis and three frogs^ 
with the words underneath, " Glodovceus der i Ghristenlieh koenig von 
Franhreich " ; that is, Clovis the first Christian king of France. 




Armorial Shield of Clovis. 

5. Uptonus de Militari Officio, p. 155, states that three frogs 
were the old arms of France, without specifying what race of kings. 

6. Professor Schott supposes the three frogs to have been dis- 
tinctly the original arms of the Bourbons ; hourhe signifying mud. 
This may have been the case. When their family became the dynasty 
of France, they probably assumed the frogs as their arms, being kings 
of the Franks, whose symbol it had been so long. The Bourbons 
arose out of the mud which is natural to frogs, and by the revolution 
of 1848 are deep in the mud again ! 

7. Typoticus, p. 75, gives as the device on a coin of Louis VL, 
the last French king before Hugh Capet, the first of the Bourbons, 
a frog with the. inscription Mihi terra lacusque, land and water 
are mine. 

8. In the Encyelopcedia Metropolitana, on Heraldry, it is stated 
that " Paul us Emilius blazons the arms of France, argent three 
diadems gules " ; others say, they bear i/iree toads, sable in a field 
vert (ap. Gwillim, c. 1), which, if ever they did, it must have been 
before the existence of the present rules. 

Such is the testimony I have to offer in the case before us. The 
conviction produced on my mind is, that the Frogs in the prophecy 
are the symbol of the French democratic power. It will be seen from 



FROGS AND LILIES. 347 

the armorial shield of Clovis, that the frogs and the lilies were both 
used as symbols. They are both indigenous to wet, or marshy, lands, 
and therefore very fit emblems of the French, who came originally 
from the marshes of Westphalia. 

But on the shield of Pharamond, so far back as a.d. 420, the 
frogs without the lilies appear in the armorial bearings of the 
Franks ; and in the medal of Childeric I. there is no lily, but the 
frog only. It would therefore seem from this, that the lilies were not 
in the original arms, but superadded many years after ; and at length 
adopted by the Bourbons as the symbol of their race in its dominion 
over the frogs. These, then, represent the nation, and the lilies, or 
fleur de lis, the ruling dynasty. Now, if the apostle had said, " I 
saw three unclean spirits like lilies come out of the Mouths," he would 
have intimated by such a similitude that the French Bourbons were 
the cause of the " unclean spirits " issuing forth from the Sultan, the 
Emperor, and the Roman prophet. But he does not say this ; he says 
they were like frogs. 

The truth, then, is obvious. In a.d. 96, when John was an exile 
in Patmos, the Franks were savages in an unnamed country, living by 
hunting and fishing like American Indians. But the Holy Spirit 
revealed to him that this people would play a conspicuous part in the 
affairs of nations ; and, foreseeing by what symbol they would repre- 
sent themselves, he symbolised their nation by it, and styled ihem 
" Frogs.'' He informed him, that under the sixth vial their influence 
would be remarkably apparent. That the Frog-nation would have 
much to do with the dragon, beast, and false prophet ; in fact, that so 
intimate and direct would their dealing be with them, that its effect 
would be perceived in the warlike tendency and influence of tlie 
measures proceeding from the Sultan, the Emperor, and the Pope ; 
who, being so completely entangled in the complications created by 
the policy of the Frog-power, would in their endeavours to extricate 
themselves, involve the whole habitable in war, which would end in 
the destruction of the two-horned beast, and the false prophet, and in 
the subjugation of the surviving horns to a new Imperial dominion 
for a time. 



The foregoing analyses of the eleventh, and sixteenth, chapters of 
Revelation will be found in no other book that I am aware of. It is 
entirely new. But, as I have said before, no interpretation of pro- 
phecy in relation to the past, or present, is worth any thing, which is 
not in harmony with facts. My interpretation must be tried by the 
same rule, and if it will not stand the test, then let it fade away into 
everlasting forgetfulness ; but if it prove to be correct, I have no 
apprehension that it will be lost. Facts, then, I remark, are in strict 
accordance with the exposition given, as I shall briefly point out. 

In the last week of February, 1848, the Parisian democracy, ever 
foremost in revolution, plucked the Bourbon Lily from its throne, and 
thrust it deep into its native mud. This dynasty of a thousand years 
was abolished, and the nation resumed its original Westphalian right 
of choosing a ruler better suited to its taste. The Fleur de lis being 



348 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

thrown aside, the Frogs by a vote of six millions set over themselves 
the nephew of their democratic emperor, who had done such good 
service in executing judgment upon their enemies. The President of 
the French Republic'-'-' is therefore the incarnation of the Frog-power, 
as the Boarbons were of the beast while ruling the tenth of the 
kingdoms. From February the outbreaks of the democracy in other 
countries became frequent and formidable ; and the National Assem- 
bly and its Provisional Government constituted in fact the Parliament 
and executive of the democracy throughout Europe. Under the shadow 
of their favour Germany and Italy became insurgent, and Hungary 
followed in the wake of insurrection. The earth shook on every side. 
Urged on by its democracy, Sardinia attacked the Beast ; and, provoked 
by the treachery of the false prophet, the people of Rome rose, and 
scared him into exile. After this, the plucking up of the Lombard 
kingdom by the roots, and the defeat of the Sardinian horn at Novara, 
by which the Little Horn became triumphant in Italy, caused the Frogs 
to seize on Rome that their interests in the Peninsular might be 
preserved from annihilation. 

By this move the Frog-nation placed itself in antagonism to the 
two-horned Beast and the false prophet. The Frogs invite the prophet 
to return to Rome ; in other words, to put himself in their power, for 
which, with the experience of French hospitality towards his prede- 
cessors before his eyes, and the treatment he has already received in 
Rome, he has not the smallest inclination, notwithstanding all his 
professions to the contrary. If he were to return, he could not remain 
there twenty-four hours in the absence of a strong military force ; and 
the Frogs will consent to no other than their own ; for they occupied 
Rome, not out of love to the Pope, but as a check upon Austria in 
Italy. The truth is, Austria and the Pope are natural allies ; and are 
as intimately related as the eyes and mouth of a man are to the man 
himself. Their fortunes are inseparable. The fate of one is the fate of 
both, even perdition by the burning flame of war. 

The army of the Frog-power has seized upon Rome, and the false 
prophet will not return, because he regards the Frogs as his real foes. 
If the Austrians had possession of the city he would go back in 
triumph ; but this not being the case, he is obliged to temporize until 
the times be more propitious. After this manner, then, the Frogs have 
become an obstacle in the way of Austria and the Pope, who are both 
desirous of their expulsion from Rome. They have become the occasion 
of unclean spirits proceeding from the Emperor and the Roman prophet, 
which will yet embroil them ah, and in the end accomplish the 
destruction of the Austro-Papal dominion. 

In regard to the Sultan, the Frogs are seen exerting their influence 
upon him. They have assured him of their support in case of his 
being attacked by Russia. This promise is sure to bring on a war 
between the Porte and the Autocrat. "f If the Sultan had been left to 

■■•■■ That is, of course, the Second Republic. In 1852 the President, Louis 
Napoleon, revived the Empire, being proclaimed Emjjeror as Napoleon III., and 
declaring that "The Empire is Peace " ! 

t It did (1853). 



HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATION OF THE WORK OF THE FROGS. 349 

himself, being weak, lie would have yielded and so have avoided war ; 
bat being energized by France and England, two strong military and 
naval powers, the Sultan feels himself a match for Russia, and 
prepared to assume a bold and warlike attitude. But these assurances 
will only lure him on to ruin. No powers, however strong, can save 
dominions fore-doomed of God. Their friendship for the Sultan will 
be as fatal to him, as the friendship of England for Austria and the 
Pope were to them in the days of Napoleon. The Autocrat, being 
God's sword upon Turkey, will be too strong for them both ; ^ for in 
the tumult and confusion created by the measures of the Sultan, the 
Emperor, and the Roman bishop, their several dominions will be 
abolished, and the Autocrat remain lord of the ascendant. 

If the reader take a survey of Europe as exhibited in the events 
of the last two years, he will see the view I have presented still further 
illustrated. The Pope and the Emperor have been the principals who 
have brought about the wars on the Continent. The unclean spirit of 
the Little Horn went forth to Russia and brought down its hosts upon 
Hungary ; it is also going forth to Prussia in opposition to the 
democratic constitution it is developing at Erfurt ; and, in concert with 
Russia, it has gone forth to the Sultan, with whom it has interrupted 
its former amicable relations. Before the Pope consented to be restored 
by France, an unclean spirit went forth from him likewise, and brought 
the Austrians, Neapolitans, and Spaniards, into his States, when he 
found the Frogs could not be excluded. 

I pointed these things out to thousands of people in my lectures, 
and told them that in regard to Hungary they were deceiving them- 
selves if they imagined the Magyars would succeed in their war of 
independence. That Hungary was a brittle toe-kingdom, and one of 
the three horns which were to be " plucked up by the roots " by the 
Little Horn. Meetings of sympathy for the Hungarians were being 
held throughout England ; and news arriving every week of Austrian 
defeats, and Magyar victories. Still, I said, if I have fallen upon the 
true principles of interpretation, it is impossible for the Hungarians to 
triumph. So certainly incorrect did some regard this view of the 
matter, that they said, when I returned to London I should have to 
expunge what I had advanced about Hungary from the manuscript 
before I published this book. A preacher who had listened to me at 
one place, was so convinced of my error, that in his next discourse he 
predicted the certain triumph of the " brave Hungarians " over all 
their enemies. But, alas for him. Men should never prophecy of 
the future from present appearances. 

Though these were against my exposition, I was persuaded it 
would turn out in the end as I had said ; and I added, furthermore, 
that " an unclean spirit " was to go forth out of the mouth of the 
dragon, as well as from the mouths of the beast and of the false 
prophet ; but that while we could discern " the spirits " issuing forth 
from these, we did not yet perceive one issuing from the Sultan : 
nevertheless, though then calm and tranquil, we should soon see a 

* Ultimately it will be so ; although Russia was checked by the Crimean War. 



350 THE KIKG1X)MS OF THE WORLD. 

warlike disposition manifest itself in his policy growing out of the 
Hungarian war. The unclean spirit of the Little Horn had brought 
the Russians into Hungary, which would only whet their appetites for 
Turkey, whom they would prepare to devour next. In two or three 
weeks after making these statements, which, as I have said before, 
were not whispered in a corner, but spoken before thousands, all 
Europe was astounded by the news of Gorgey's surrender, and the 
rnin of the Magyar cause. The details are known to every one. And 
as I had said, so it came to pass, Turkish sympathy with the 
Hungarians, and hospitality to the refugees, was made a casus belli by 
the Autocrat ; and on the refusal of the Sultan to violate it, 
diplomatic relations were broken off between Russia, Austria, and 
Turkey ; and the " unclean spirit " energized by the Frogs, exhibits 
even the Sultan as a belligerent. 

The mission, then, of these three demons for the period which 
remains of their political existence, is to stir up the nations to war, 
which will redound to their own confusion. The Press is prophesying 
smooth things, and persuading the world of the moderation of the 
Antocrat, and of the good intentions of Austria and the Pope ! It 
has told "US several times that the extradition affair was composed and 
that peace between Russia and Turkey will not be interrupted ; and 
as often it unsays what it had before affirmed. But, the reader need 
place no reliance npon newspaper speculations. Their scribes know 
not what God has revealed, consequently their reasonings are vain, 
and sure to take a wrong direction. As records of facts, the journals 
are invaluable ; but if a person permit his opinions to be formed by 
the views presented in leading articles, and the letters of " our own 
correspondents," he will be continually misled, and compelled to eat 
his words for evermore. 

The Bible is the enlightener. If men would not be carried 
about by every wind that blows, let them study this. It will unfold 
to them the future, and make them wiser than the world. The 
coming years will not he years of peace. The policy of the Auto- 
crat will be to throw his adversaries off their guard, and take the 
Sultan by surprise. He is to " come against him like a whirlwind, 
with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships ; and he will 
enter into the countries, and overflow and pass over. And many 
countries shall be overchrown.""^ This is the career marked out for 
him ; which neither France, nor England, nor the world combined 
can obstruct, or circumvent. 

" BEHOLD, I COME AS A THIEF ! " 

In dismissing this part of the subject, it is necessary to call the 
attention of the reader to a very important intimation in connection 
with the prophecy of the " unclean spirits like frogs." This part of 
the prediction is contained in four verses, that is, from the thirteenth 
to the sixteenth inclusive. Now, if the reader will examine the 
passage, he will find that there is a break in the prophecy. That is 

o Dan. xi. 40, 41. 



THE THIEF-LIKE ADVENT OF CHRIST. 351 

to say, the subject of the spirits of demons gathering the kings of the 
whole habitable to war, is suddenly and entirely dropped ; and an 
altogether different subject introduced. 

This new topic is nothing less than the appearance of him 
who sent and signified the contents of the Apocalypse to his servant 
John." " Behold," says he, " I come as a thief. Blessed is he that 
watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see 
his shame." 

Then, in the next verse, the former subject is revived, and it is. 
revealed, that the angel of the sixth vial gathers the kings and their 
armies into the battle field of Armageddon ; where, as we learn from 
other testimony, they encounter the Lamb, upon whom they make war^ 
without knowing, probably, that he is the Commander of the forces 
with which they are contending.^ 

Now, does it not strike the reader as remarkable that the coming 
of the Lord should be introduced in a proj^hecy like that concerning 
the frogs ? But singular as it may seem it is by no means accidental^ 
but the best possible place for it, because it is intimately connected 
with their operations. It is mercifully introduced as a ivarning of 
what is about to happen at the crisis, that the believer may not be 
taken at unawares. It speaks to us in effect, saying, " When you 
perceive the policy of the Frog-power acting upon the demon of 
Turkey, the demon of Austria, and the demon of Romanism, so as 
to cause them to assume an attitude tending to embroil the nations, 
you may then know that I, the Lord, am about to revisit the world 
stealthily." 

Christ says, '' Behold, I come as a thief.'" That is, he comes as a 
thief comes when he is bent on stealing. A thief not only comes 
unexpectedly, but he gets into the house with secrecy. John, indeed,, 
says, " He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, even those 
(kul dirireg) who pierced him ; and all the tribes of the land shall mourn 
over him (eir 'avrov)."'' This, however, is affirmed of his appearance 
in Israel, when he shall make himself known to his brethren after the 
type of Joseph •/■ which will be subsequently to the great battle in the 
valley of Megiddo. 

The 185,000 Assyrians in the reign of Hezekiah felt the vengeance 
of the destroyer, but they saw him not ; so I believe it will be at the 
battle of Armageddon, the kings and their armies will be overcome 
with dreadful slaughter, but they will not see the Avenger's person. 
The work of the succeeding years requires that so signal a revelation 
be withheld from them. Israel and the saints of the holy city will see 
the Lord, but not the nations at large. The divine majesty is not 
prodigal of its manifestations. Men in the flesh, therefore, will, I 
apprehend, believe in the presence of the Lord on earth as its imperial 
and pontifical Ruler, as nations now believe in the existence and 
sovereignty of the Autocrat, the Sultan, the Emperor, or the Pope, of 

a Rev. i. 1. ^ Eev, xvii. 14 : xix. 19, 21 . c Rev. i. 7. <^ Zecli. xiii. 10-14. 



352 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

whom they have heard by the report of others, but whom they have 
not seen, and perhaps may never behold. Men profess now to believe 
that the Lord Jesus is at the right hand of God ; but hereafter they 
will believe that he is " reigning in Jerusalem before his Ancients 
gloriously ; ""^ and their faith if made perfect by works, will, doubtless, 
as now, be counted to them for righteousness. 

Bat, let the reader observe, that in connection with the warning 
given, a blessing is pronounced on those who are heedful of the signs 
of the times. "Blessed," says Jesus, "is he that watcheth." Now 
no one can watch without light. If the heavens be dark, the watch- 
man must be provided with a light, or he cannot watch. By gazing 
at the natural luminaries as some professors are accustomed to do, 
no light can be derived, nor signs observed premonitory of the coming 
of the. Lord. This is "the way of the heathen," and "a custom 
which is vain."^ The natural heavens are impenetrably dark in 
relation to his appearing. The believer, or spiritual watchman, must 
take " the sure word of prophecy," which is the only " light " 
capable of enlightening him in the surrounding gloom. This world 
is " a dark place," and its cosmopolites who understand not the 
prophetic word mere embodiments of fog. If we understand " the 
word of the kingdom " we shall " shine as lights in the world," and 
be enabled to rejoice in the approach of " the day of Christ." By the 
" shining light of prophecy " we shall be able to interpret the signs 
which God has revealed as appearing in the jDolitical heavens and 
earth. Events among the nations of the Roman habitable, and not 
atmospheric phenomena, are the signs of the coming of the Lord- as a 
thief ; whose nature, whether signs or not, can only be determined by 
" the testimony of God." 

Prom the whole, then, there can be no doubt in the mind of a 
true believer. He discerns the sign given under the sixth vial as 
manifestly, and believes as assuredly that the Lord is at hand, as they 
who observed the sun setting in Syrian splendour knew that the 
coming day would be glorious. Be not deceived, then, by the syren- 
voices of the peace-prophets. Ere long the last and most terrible of 
wars will break out. The Beast and the False Prophet will be 
plagued, and the Lord will come as a thief in the night. Let this 
conviction work out its intended results. The blessing is not simply 
to him that watcheth : but to him that " watcheth and heepeth his 
garments^ Simpl}^ to believe that the Lord is near, and to be able to 
discern the signs of the times, will not entitle a man to the blessing. 
He must "buy gold tried in the fire ; and white raiment, that he may 
be clothed, and that the shame of his nakedness do not appear ; and 
anoint his eyes with eye-salve, that he may see."" In other words, he 
must believe " the things concerning the kingdom of God and the 
name of Jesus Christ ;" follow the example of the Samaritans and 
be baptized into the name of the Holy Ones ; and thenceforth perfect 
his faith by his works, as Abraham did. He will then be a lamp, well 
oiled and trimmed, and fit to shine forth as a glorious light at the 
marriage of the Lamb. 

a Isaiah xxiv. 23. ^ Jer. x; 2, 3. « Rev. iii. 18. 



"WATCHETH AND KEEPETH HIS GARMENTS." 353 

A community of such persons in a city constitutes the Lamb's 
wife there, prepared for the coming of the Lord. He is arrayed in 
fine linen, clean and white ; for the fine linen represents the righteous- 
ness of the saints ;" who have " washed their robes, and made them 
white in the blood of the Lamb." Therefore they will be " before the 
throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple (or king- 
dom) : and he that sitteth upon the throne shall dwell among them. 
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; neither shall the 
sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst 
of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living foun- 
tains of waters ; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."^ 
The representative number of their aggregate is 144,000 ;" and their 
representative measure 144 cubits.*^ " These are they who (in the days 
of their flesh) were not defiled with women ; for they are virgins. 
These are they who follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These 
were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto God, and 
to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile : for they are 
without fault before the throne of God." At present, they are the 
" holy city trodden under foot of the Gentiles ;" but when changed 
and raised from the dead, and exalted to meet the Lord in the aerial, 
and are seen descending there as Zion, they are " the great city, the 
new and holy Jerusalem, having the glory of Gx^d."* 

This, then, is the great desideratum of the age — namely, the pre- 
paration of a people for the Lord ; a people whose character shall 
answer to the testimonies adduced. "The churches " do not contain 
such a people, neither can their pulpit ministrations produce them. 
In fact, '' the churches " are precisely what college divinity is alone 
competent to create. " The truth as it is in Jesus " is not taught in 
the schools. They are mere nurseries of pride, professional religion, 
and conceit ; and " the droppings of the sanctuary " which their nurse- 
lings are appointed to distil, wear away the intelligence of the people, 
and leave them irresponsive to " the testimony of God." Nothing 
short of this, unmixed with the traditions of men, can make people 
what they must be if they would inherit His kingdom. Other gospels 
will make other kinds of Christians than those who believe the gospel 
the apostles preached. We must forsake the pulpits, and devote the 
time usually spent in dozing over their mar-text expositions to the 
Berean scrutiny of the scriptures for ourselves. These alone are able to 
make us wise unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ 
Jesus. 

Hearing " sermons " is not *' hearing the word." It is this we 
must hear if we would have faith ; for " faith comes by hearing the 
word of God." If the gospel of the kingdom were preached in " the 
churches," and believed, there would be no more complaints of want 
of spirituality and life. There would be so much of these, that they 
would be too hot to hold the worldlings who overshadow them with 
the wings of death. They would go out from them, because they 

« Rev. xix. 7, 8. ^ Rev. vii. 14-17. " Rev. xiv. 1-3. ^ Rev. xxi. 17. 
« Rev. xi. 2 : xxi. 2, 9, 10, 11. 



354 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

were not of them. Let the well disposed in " the churches " try the 
experiment, and they will soon discover the truth of what is here 
stated. The time is come in which there must be no faint-heartedness, 
and when a courageous testimony must be borne for the word of the 
kingdom. Ministerial favour and popularity must be utterly dis- 
regarded ; and the question be, not " What saith the minister ? " or 
" What will people think ? " It matters not what they say, or think, 
in the case ; the simple question is, " How is it written ? " " What 
saith the word ? " Let this course be pursued in candour, and I 
doubt not, but in a short time a people will spring up in these islands, 
prepared for the Lord, whom he will acknowledge at his return. 



THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF THE EAST. 355 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE EASTERN QUESTION BEFORE CHRIST. 

The vision and prophecy of the East. — Of the Ram and the Unicom. — The Four 
Horns of the Goat. — Of the fifth, or Little, Horn. — Of the Seventy Weeks. — 
Of the 1,290 years. — Summary of the eleventh of Daniel. — Paraphrase of the 
first thirty-five verses of Dan. xi. — Of the King and the strange god. — 
" Malmzzim-Bazaarsy 

The Greco-Roman Dragon, or Fourtli Beast, is a symbol which, 
represents the dominion of the whole habitable ; of a greater extent 
of territory than the empire of pagan Rome, by so much as is 
included in the countries of the Little Horn, which lie beyond the 
frontiers of the old dominion. But although this symbol covers all 
this territory, as it were, it was as impossible to signify by it every 
thing necessary to be represented as it was by Nebuchadnezzar's 
Image. The Four Beasts were illustrations of the Image. This was 
especially the case with the fourth. But, even by these additional 
symbols many very important details were left unrepresented. Hence, 
the Fourth Beast has been itself illustrated by the apocalyptic symbols 
of the dragon, the ten-horned Beast, the two-horned Beast, and the 
image of the sixth head of the ten-horned Beast, which was also the 
sixth head of the dragon. 

But notwithstanding all these symbols have been given; all of 
them in some particular illustrative of the Image, there remains a 
highly interesting portion of literal prophecy unsymbolized. The 
above-named symbols introduce us to the knowledge of things which 
history has verified, and to events which belong to " the time of the 
end." They represent the great truth of the destruction of the Sin- 
power, and the setting up of the kingdom of God ; but of the events 
connected with the subjects of that kingdom, there is a representation 
that needs to be supplied by other symbols with their appropriate 
description. These are found in Daniel's vision of the east. 

But why, it may be asked, has all this symbolography been intro- 
duced into the Bible ? The answer is, to illustrate the relations of 
the Sin-power to " the holy people "'^ in the eastern and western 
divisions of the Roman empire. By the holy people is meant the 
twelve tribes of Israel, and the two witnesses, including also the 
saints of the holy city among the Gentiles. The Roman power, under 
its several constitutions, has been the destroyer of " Judah and his 
companions," and the slayer of the Christians grafted into the stock 
of Israel, and of those associated with them for their defence against 
the Beast. The ten horns and Little Horn of the Fourth Beast 
represent the Roman power of the West in its contest with the two 
witnesses ; but there still remained to be represented, the Roman 
dragonic power of the East, as the desolator of Canaan and the 

a Dan. viii. 24 : xii. 7. 



356 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

destroyer of the Jews, who are the political subjects of the kingdom 
which the God of heaven will set up when He demolishes the Image 
on the mountains of Israel. 

To supply this desideratum the symbols of the eighth chapter, and 
the exposition of them in the ninth and eleventh chapters, were 
revealed to Daniel. These may be styled the vision and prophecy of 
the East ; while the Fourth Beast is the vision of the West : both of 
which are set forth briefly and unitedly in the image of divers metals. 
Having said as much as is necessary to the comprehension of our 
subject respecting the things which relate to the saints and the Western 
powers, our attention will henceforth be confined to a brief exposition 
of the vision and prophecy of the East. 

The reader is invited to peruse the eighth chapter of Daniel. 

About three years after the vision of the Four Beasts, the prophet 
saw another vision in which there were only two, namely, a Ram and 
He-goat. The former had two horns of unequal height, and ''the 
higher came up last^ In the twentieth verse we are informed that 
the horns represent " the kings of Media and Persia." Hence the Ram 
symbolises the Medo-Persian power, with its two dynasties which were 
not contemporary, but came up one after the other, the Median first, 
and then the Persian. Having established itself, the Medo-Persians 
pushed their conquests westward towards Greece," northward towards 
Armenia, and southward towards Egypt and Ethiopia ; so that no 
powers could stand before them, nor was there any dominion strong 
enough to deliver the conquered nations from their yoke. 

Things continued thus about two centuries from the death of 
Belshatzar, when a power arose in the west which was represented to 
Daniel by a unicorn, that is, by a goat with one horn. This was 
the Macedonian kingdom ; and the horn, its first king, or Alexander 
the Great. He is styled in the vision " a notable horn ; " and in the 
prophecy "a mighty king, ruling with great dominion, and doing 
according to his will."^ The Ram's dominion is represented by the 
silver part of the image, and the Goat's by the brazen, " which bare 
rule over all the earth." War broke out between these two powers, 
which ended in the breaking off of the Ram's two horns ; so that the 
hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the Ram, stretching from India 
to Ethiopia, were transferred to the Macedonian victor. Now, '* when 
he stood up," or " was strong," " his kingdom," or " great horn was 
broken, and instead of it came up four notable horns towards the four 
winds (wings) of heaven ; " that is, " four kingdoms stood up out of 
the nation." These have been enumerated on page 302 in speaking 
of the four heads of the Leopard, which represent the same things as 
the four horns. Of the horns, it is said, " they stood up not in his 
power," which is interpreted to signify, that the power of the king- 
doms did not accrue " to the first king's posterity ; " for his kingdom 
was plucked up for others beside them. 

Now, in the latter time of these four Macedonian kingdoms, a 
fifth power made its appearance among them, and subdued them all. 
This is represented in the vision by a Little Horn growing up out of 

« Dan. xi. 2. '' Dan. xi. 3. 



THE ROMAN. 357 

one of the four horns ; and in the propheGy, as " a king doing accord- 
ing to his will."* Though relatively small in its beginnings, this fifth 
power *' waxed exceeding great, toward the south, or Egypt ; toward 
the east, or Euphrates ; and toward the pleasant land of Canaan. The 
history of the kingdoms into which Alexander's dominion was broken, 
enables us to determine what fifth power is represented by the little 
horn of the goat, and upon which of the four horns it made its 
appearance in relation to the land of Israel, which is the arena of the 
latter time of the vision and prophecy. 

The Little Horn, then, is representative of the dragon's power in 
the East — that is, of the Roman ; which was planted on the Assyro- 
Macedonian Horn b.o. 65, when it became a province of the dragon 
empire. It continued to wax exceeding great in these countries until 
it established its dominion over Syria, Palestine, part of Arabia, and 
Egypt. The tenth, eleventh, and twelfth verses, represent the part it 
was to enact in the overthrow of the Jewish State ; and the twenty- 
fifth outlines its ecclesiastical policy, and its exaltation against the 
Prince of princes in " the last end of the indignation," when it 
''shall he broken without hand " — that is, hy the Stone of Israel when 
he smites the Image on the feet. 

We see, then, that Daniel treats of two Little Horns ; the one 
the " Holy Roman " power of the West that came up '' after " the 
Ten Horns ; and the other, the Pagan Roman power of the East that 
appeared in Syria and Palestine in the latter end of the Macedonian 
kingdoms, and before the Ten Horns by many centuries. The Little 
Horns are representative of powers on certain territories, not of races. 
It matters not whether they be Pagan Romans, CathoHc Greeks, 
Moslem Turks, or Greek-Catholic Russians, the power that rules in 
Constantinople and plants its standard in Assyria, is the Little Horn 
of the Assyro-Macedonian Horn of the Goat ; and begins its career 
by crucifying " the Prince of the Host " ;^ destroying Jerusalem and 
the temple '," sets up a god in Rome whom his fathers knew 
not \^ and ends by standing up against Michael, the Prince of princes, 
who brings him to his end, with none to help him.^ All the power of 
the dragon in relation to Israel and the land of promise is embodied 
in the Little Horn of the East. The smiting of the Image, the break- 
ing of the Goat's little horn, and the binding of the dragon, are 
synchronous and synonymous catastrophes ; and " the Stone," " the 
Prince of princes," " Messiah the prince," and " Michael the great 
prince who stands up for Israel," are but different titles by which the 
Lord Jesus is designated, who is to descend from heaven and fight the 
battle of God Almighty against them. 

Such, then, was " the vision," which was understood by none. 
At the time it was revealed, Jerusalem and the temple were in ruins, 
and Israel dispersed among the Gentiles. The time, however, had 
approached to within two years of the period of restoration. Daniel 
being aware of this from the testimony of Jeremiah, made confession 
of sins, and supplicated the return of national prosperity. His 

«Dan. xi. 36.' ?^ Dan. viii. U. c Dan. ix. 26. ^^Dan. xi. 30. 
'■ Dan. viii. 25 : xi. 45 : xii. L 



358 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

prayer was heard, and " the man Gabriel," who had given him the 
interpretation of the symbols of the vision, was sent forth to " give 
him skill and understanding" of that part of the vision of the Ram 
and the Goat which had reference to the subject of his prayer; and 
to communicate some additional particulars. " The matter " revealed 
is termed the prophecy of the seventy weeks. In this he was informed 
that a decree should be made for the restoration of the Jewish State ; 
but that at a subsequent period the city and temple should be again 
destroyed ; and that this second destruction should be followed by a 
desolation of the country which should continue till that determined 
should be poured out upon the desolator, that is, on the Little Horn 
of the goat in " the time of the end." 

But he was informed that, between the restoration from Babylon 
and the second destruction of the city, the following important events 
would come to pass— namely, first, the transgression of the law of 
Moses would be put an end to ; secondly, an end would be made of 
sin-offerings by causing the sacrifice and oblation to cease ; thirdly, 
reconciliation would be made' for iniquity by cutting off Messiah the 
Prince ; fourthly, everlasting righteousness, as opposed to the 
temporary righteousness of the law, would be brought in ; fifthly, the 
vision and the prophecy would be sealed up in the confirmation of 
the covenant ; and sixthly, the Most Holy would be Anointed. These 
things were to be brought about by the instrumentality of the Little 
Horn of the goat ; who should "magnify himself against the Prince of 
the host (of Israel), and by him the daily (sacrifice and oblation) should 
be taken away, and the place of his sanctuary (the temple) be cast 
down." To effect this, " an army (the people of the Prince that should 
come) should be given him against the daily ;" because the transgressors 
in Israel " had come to the full." Therefore he should " cast down 
the truth (the law and covenant of Sinai) to the ground," and " prosper 
and practise, and destroy the mighty and the holy people." 

But when should this second destruction of the city and temple 
be ? This was a question which Gabriel could not answer. When 
Jesus was discoursing upon the same topic, four of the apostles 
addressed him privately, saying, " Tell us, when shall these things 
be ? " But, after giving them certain signs by which they might know 
that the desolation was approaching, he added, " Of that day and hour 
knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the 
Son, but the Father."'' It was a secret reserved in the power of the 
Father only. 

But if the time when " a host should be given to the Little Horn 
of the Goat against the city and temple " was withheld, precise in- 
formation was granted concerning the time when the things testified 
in the twenty-fourth verse of the ninth chapter, and the cutting off of 
Messiah the Prince, should come to pass. They were to be accomplished 
in a period of seventy weeks of years from the promulgation of a 
certain decree — that is, after 490 years. Two years after this was 
revealed to him, Daniel's heart was rejoiced by the proclamation of 
Cyrus in the first year of his reign, for the rebuilding of the temple in 

« Mark xiii. 3, 4, 32. 



THE MINISTRY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST AND OF JESUS. 359 

Jerusalem." But had lie reckoned the 490 years from this date, they 
would have terminated 13 years before Messiah was born. The 
seventy weeks, however, were not to commence with a decree for 
rebuilding the temple ; but " from the going forth of the command- 
ment to restore and huild Jerusalem ; " in other words, to restore the 
wastes of the city by setting up the wall and the gates thereof, that 
Israel's reproach might cease.^ This was issued by Artaxerxes on the 
first day of Nisan in the twentieth year of his reign, which was exactly 
490 years to the crucifixion. No date of any other decree answers the 
demand of " the matter ; " therefore there is no option but to receive 
it as a demonstration by fact. 

Gabriel divided the seventy weeks of years into three portions, 
namely, into one of seven iceeks ; another of sixty-tiuo lueeks ; and 
into a third of one iceek, which he subdivided into two half jDarts. 
The seven weeks, or 49 years, were allotted to the restoration of the 
state ; after the end of which, 434 years, or sixty-two weeks more, were 
to elapse to the manifesting of Messiah the prince. This was 483 
years to " the beginning of the gospel concerning Jesus Christ " 
announced by John the Baptist,'' who came baptising in water " that 
he might be made manifest to Israel."'^ From this date there remained 
seven years to the end of the 490. 

The seventieth week was the week in which the covenant was 
confirmed in the attestations which the Father gave to Jesus as His 
Son, and as the Seed of Abraham and of David, to whom He had 
promised the land of Canaan, and the kingdom and throne of David 
for an everlasting inheritance. The week of confirmation was divided 
between the ministry of John and that of Jesus. The former was 
engaged in baptising the people into the hope of Messiah's immediate 
manifestation ; and when he was about finishing his work, Jesus 
was baptised, and publicly recognised before the assembled people, 
as the Son of God by a voice from the excellent glory. He was 
also anointed at the same time, and sealed, as the Most Holy One 
of Israel. John having now finished his ministry, was thrown into 
prison by Herod the tetrarch ;^ and Jesus being thirty years old, 
entered upon the work of the latter half part of the week, or three 
years and a half remaining to complete the 490. After he had passed 
some months of his ministry, he was warned by some Pharisees that 
Herod would kill him ; to which he replied, " Go tell that fox, Behold 
I cast out devils and do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day 
I shall be perfected. Nevertheless, I must walk to-day, and to-morrow, 
and the day following ; for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of 
Jerusalem."^ 

Besides showing that a day is sometimes used prophetically for a 
year, the Lord's reply shows also the period of his ministry as equiva- 
lent to the latter half part, at the end of which he expected to die, and 
afterwards to be perfected by a resurrection to life. Exactly to the 
month " he was cut off, but not for himself," 490 years after the 
decree of Artaxerxes in the twentieth of his reign. " The matter " 

« 2 Chron. xsxvi. 22, 23. & Neli ii. 1, 5, 17. e Mark i. 1. d JoJm i. 31. 
e Luke iii. 15, 19, 20-23. / Lidce xiii. 31-32. 



360 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

revealed to Daniel, who was at the same time exhorted to " consider 
the vision,'' to a part of which it referred, was all accomplished as 
far as the seventy weeks were concerned. There only remained 
now the destruction of the city and temple, the taking away of the 
sacrifice and the oblation, and subsequent desolation of the land, by 
the Little Horn of the Goat. Was that to succeed the crucifixion 
instanter, or after how long a time were these calamities to come 
to pass ? As I have already shown, no one but God could tell ; for 
He withheld the knowledge of it from every one but Himself ; and 
left it to reveal itself when the time of the judgment of Gehenna 
should arrive. 

At the end of the latter half-part of the week the Lord " caused 
the sacrifice and oblation to cease " as an acceptable offering for sin. 
The sacrifice of himself put an end to sin-offerings as far as believers 
in him were concerned. They still continued to be offered by the 
nation ; but when the people of the Little Horn should come to execute 
the work assigned them, even these should be violently interrupted ; 
for " the daily was to be taken away, and the place of its sanctuary 
cast down." This was fully accomplished about 37 years after the 
crucifixion, that is to say, in about seventy years from the birth of 
Christ. But why was it removed ? Why might not the Mosaic 
religion continue to be practised in Canaan, as well as the false 
religions of the Gentiles in the several countries of the earth ? 
Because " an abomination that maketh desolate " was to be " set up." 
Now, so long as the daily and its holy place continued, there would be 
no place for this abomination. The daily must therefore be removed 
to make way for it. They could not exist contemporarily ; neither 
does it follow that " the abomination " was to succeed the suppression 
of the daily immediately. The facts in the case forbid this conclusion. 
Palestine and Syria were for ages after populous, and wealthy, 
provinces of the Roman habitable. 

The notion that the duration of the abomination was to be dated 
from A.D. 70 is derived from the English version of Daniel, twelfth 
chapter and eleventh verse. It is there written, " And from the time 
that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that 
maketh desolate be set up, there shall he 1,290 days." In the Hebrew 
the italic words are not in the text. Leaving out these words, or 
rather, giving a more literal "version without supplying any words 
at all, the passage appears intelligible enough. " And at the time of 
vengeance the daily shall be taken away, in order to set up an 
abomination that' maketh desolate a thousand two hundred and ninety 
days." This rendering agrees with the facts in the case. Tlie 
daily was taken away at the time of vengeance," and 461 years 
after, an abomination was set up which continued 1,290 years, 
ending a.d. 1821. ■•^- Desolation, it is true, still continues, but this 
is no objection to their termination then. We are not to suppose 
that the 1,290 years being ended, internal improvement was to 

« Luke xxi. 22. 



■■••■ See Appendix. 



or 

^Koa 
VMa 



"the abomination of desolation." 361 

begin the year after. All it justifies is the expectation that when 
they expired " that that is determined " should begin to be " poured 
out upon the desolator ; " an expectation that has been literally 
verified in the opening of the sixth vial upon the Ottoman empire in 
the epoch of 1820-3. 

But is the little horn of the goat that destroyed the mighty and 
holy people, to experience simply a drying up of its power over 
Palestine and Syria, or what shall be its destiny ? It is to be broken 
to pieces without hand. Its present Ottoman dynasty being changed, 
it is to " destroy wonderfully, and to magnify himseK in his heart, 
and to stand up against the Prince of princes," that he may receive 
the blow on the head that shall disable him for a thousand years. 

" The matter " of the vision concerning the taking away of the 
daily was made known to Daniel in the first year of Darius, B.C. 542. 
Three years after — that is, in the third of the joint reign of Cyrus and 
Darius" — "a thing was revealed " to him, " the appointed time " of 
which " was long." In connection with this revelation, or prophecy, 
"a vision " was also presented before him. It was a representation of 
the Son of Man in his glory. After he had recovered the overpowering 
effect caiised by what he saw, he was informed by one that he came to 
make him understand what should befall Israel in the latter days} In 
carrying out this gracious intention, the revelator added furthermore 
that he would show him " that which is noted in the scripture of 
truth ;" by which he meant, he would make known to him what yet 
remained to be communicated explanatory of the vision of the Ram 
and He-Goat, which he had seen in the third year of Belshatzar. 

The Lord then proceeded to reveal the things contained in the 
eleventh and twelfth chapters of Daniel, which have respect, First, 
to the pushing of the Ram westward against Greece in the reign of 
the fourth king after Cyrus ; Secondly, to the power of Alexander of 
Macedon, and the division of his kingdom into four lesser ones, 
which should be inherited by others not descended from him. These 
matters occupy the first four verses, and constitute a kind of preface 
to what follows ; and serve to establish the connection of " the 
l^rophecy " with "the vision of the evening and morniag" contained 
in the eighth chapter. Thirdly, the revelation relates to the Greco- 
Egyptian, and to the Assyro-Macedonian, horns of the goat, styled 
" the king of the south," and " the king of the north." The wars 
and policy of these two Powers as far as they compromised the land 
of Israel and the Jews, form the subject of the eleventh chapter from 
the fifth to the thirty-fifth verses, inclusive. Fourthly, from the 
thirty-sixth to the fortieth verse, the prophecy relates to the Little 
Horn of the goat and the Accursed One whom he should acknowledge 
and increase with glory. Fifthly, it refers to the time of the end, 
or " the latter days," when " the king of the south," and " the 
king of the north," should re-appear on the stage of action, and the 
ower of the little horn, and that of the king of the north, should 
alesce, and form one poioer, as when the Roman and Assyro- 
cedonian were blended together, b.o. 67. Sixthly, it reveals the 

« Dan. i. 21: x. 1. ?> Dan. x. 14. 



362 TBE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

invasion of the land of Israel by the little horn's northern king, who 
over-runs Egypt, and finally encamps before the holy mountain. 
And seventhly, the revelation closes with the prediction of his final 
destruction at the hand of Michael, the great prince of Israel, their 
consequent deliverance, the resurrection of many of the dead, and the 
exaltation of the wise in the wisdom of God.« 

Such are the general topics of this remarkable prophecy, which 
in a chapter of forty verses covers a period of 2,408 years from the 
third of Cyrus to the breaking of the little horn. I propose now 
to give the reader a more particular, yet necessarily brief, interpre- 
tation, of this " difficult passage " of the sure prophetic word. I 
shall paraphrase the text. The words in italics will be those of the 
scripture, and the Roman type, the interpretation of the text, after the 
following manner. 

PARAPHRASE OF DANIEL'S ELEVENTH CHAPTER. 
To tlie thirty-fifth verse inclusive. 

The date of the prophecy is the third year of Cyrus, B.C. 540, and 
runs thus : — 

Behold, there shall stand up yet three hings in Persia, namely, 
Ahasuerus, Smerdis, and Darius ; and the fourth, or Xerxes, shall 
he far richer than they all : and hy his strength through his riches 
he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia. 3. And Alexander, 
the Macedonian, a mighty king shall stand up, ruling with great 
dominion and doing according to his loill. 4. And when he shall 
stand up, having suffered no defeat, his kingdom shall he hroken, 
and shall he divided into four kingdoms toward the four winds of 
heaven: hut their glory and power shall fall not to his posterity, 
nor according to the extent of his dominion which he ruled : for his 
kingdom shall he plucked up, even for other rulers heside those of his 
family. 

5. And the king of the south, Ptolemy Soter, shall he strong, and 
shall he one of his, Alexander's princes, or generals ; and he shall 
he strong above him, and have dominion ; his dominion shall he a 
great dominion, extending over Egypt, Libya, Cyrenaica, Arabia, 
Palestine, Coele-Syria, and most of the maritime provinces of 
Asia Minor ; with the island of Cyprus, and several others in the 
iEgean Sea, and even some cities of Greece, as Cicyon and Corinth. 
Such was the dominion of Ptolemy Soter, the first Macedonian king 
of Egypt. 

6. And in the end of fifty-two years from B.C. 301, they, the kings 
of Egypt and Assyro-Macedonia, shall associate themselves together ; 
for the king's daughter of the south, Berenice, the daughter of Ptolemy 
Philadelphus, shall come, or be conducted, to Antiochus Theos, the 
king of the north, to make a marriage agreement : hut she shall not 
retain the power of the arm of her father Ptolemy Philadelphus. 
Neither shall he her husband Antiochus stand ; for Laodice, his' 
repudiated wife, whom he shall receive again when he divorces 

« Dan. xii. 1-3. 



I 



THE KINGS OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH, AND ISRAEL. 363 

Berenice after her father's death, shall cause him to be poisoned. Nor 
shall his arm, Berenice, stand ; hut she shall he given up to suffer 
death ; and they, the Egyptians also, that hrought her to Syria ; and 
he, her son, whom, she hrought forth, and he that strengthened her in 
these times, shall die ; and thus leave her to the mercy of Laodice, 
which will be treachery and death. 

7. But out of a hranch of her parent roots shall Ptolemy 
Euergetes,'*'- her brother, stand up in his estate, or kingdom, and come 
with an army, and shall enter into Antioch the capital, and the fortress 
of the king of the north, and shall deal, or make war, against them, 
even against Laodice and her son Seleucus, and shall prevail : 8. and 
Euergetes shall also carry captives into Egypt their gods, loith their 
princes, and with their precious vessels of silver and of gold ; and he 
shall continue to reign nine more years than the king of the north, who 
shall die a prisoner in Parthia five years before the king of Egypt. 
9. So the king of the south shall come into his kingdom, and shall 
return into his own land, B.C. 244. 

10. But his, Seleucus Callinicus' sons Seleucus Ceraunus, and 
Antiochus, shall he stirred up to war ; and shall assemhle a midtitude 
of great forces : and one of them, even Antiochus the Great, shall 
certainly come and overflow through the passes of Libanus, and pass 
through into Galilee, and possess himself of all that part of the 
country, which was formerly the inheritance of the tribes of 
Reuben and Gad, and of the half tribe of Manasseh. Then, the 
season being too far advanced to prolong the campaign, shall he return 
to Ptolemais, where he shall put his forces into winter quarters. But, 
•early in the spring B.C. 217, Ptolemy Philopator shall march with a 
large army to Raphia, by which Antiochus shall he stinted up again 
to war, and defeated with great slaughter, so that he shall retreat to 
his fortress. 11. Thus, shall the king of the southhe moved loith choler, 
and, come forth and fight with the king of the north; and the king 
of the north shall set forth a great multitude, even 72,000 foot and 
6,000 horse ; hut the midtitude shall he given into the hand of the 
king of Egypt. 

12. And when he, the king of the south, hath taken away the 
multitude by a signal defeat of Antiochus, his heart shall he lifted up, 
for he will desire to enter the most holy place of the temple. But 
while he was preparing to enter, he was stricken, and carried off for 
dead. In his victory over Antiochus he shall cast doion ten thousands, 
even 10,000 foot and 300 horse. But, not following up his advantages, 
Philopator shall not he strengthened by his victory. 13. For Antiochus 
the Great, the king of the north, shall return, and set forth a multitude 
of troops, greater than the former, and shall certainly come after 
certain, that is, nineteen years after the battle of Raphia, or B.C. 198, 
with a great army and with much riches, and shall subjugate all 
Palestine and Coele-Syria. 

"■•■ This is the Ptolemy of the Decree of Canopus, found in " the field of Zoan " 
in 1866, and now in the Gizeh Museum, Cairo (Copy in the British Mxiseum). 



364 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

14. And in those times, when Ptolemy Epiphanes •'• shall reign 
over Egypt, many shall stand up against the infant hing of the 
south, even the kings of Macedonia, and of Syria, and Scopas, the 
general of his deceased father. But the deputies of the Romans, the 
breakers of thy people, Daniel, shall interfere to establish the 
vision. They became the guardians and protectors of Epiphanes 
during his minority ; and appointed three deputies, who were ordered 
to acquaint the kings with their resolution, and to enjoin them not to 
infest the dominions of their royal pupil ; for that otherwise they 
should be forced to declare war against them. The deputy, Emilius, 
one of the three, after delivering the message of the Roman senate, 
proceeded to Alexandria, and settled everything to as much advan- 
tage as the state of affairs in Egypt would then admit. In this way 
the Romans began to mix themselves up with the affairs of Egypt, 
Palestine, and Syria ; and in a few years established themselves as 
lords paramount of the East, and so constituted a power in Asia, 
symbolized by the Little Horn of the Goat, and in the thirty-sixth 
verse, styled " the king." But, though they should be " the breakers 
of Israel," the assurance was given to Daniel, saying, they shall fall. 

15. So the king of the north, being checked by the Romans, shall 
come into Palestine, and cast up a mount against Sidon, where he 
shall besiege the forces of the Egyptians ; and he shall take Jerusalem, 
the city of munitions, from the castle of which he shall expel the 
Egyptian garrison : and the arms of the south shall not withstand, 
neither his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to with- 
stand Antiochus. 16. But Antiochus the Great, who cometh against 
Ptolemy EpijDhanes, shall do according to his own will in Coele-Syria 
and Palestine, and none shall stand before him : and he shall make 
a permanent stand in the glorious land of Israel, which by his hand 
shall be consumed. 17. He shall also set his face to enter into Greece, 
with the strength of his whole kingdom, and Israelites (Ishrim) with 
him. Thus shall he do to incorporate Greece into his dominion, by 
which the Romans, who had recently proclaimed it free, would be 
stirred up against him. Therefore, to secure the neutrality of their 
Egyptian ally, he shall give Cleopatra, the daughter of women, or 
princess royal, to Epiphanes to wife, corrupting her to betray him by 
resigning to him Coele-Syria and Palestine as her dower, but on 
condition that he should receive half the revenues. Thus, the land of 
Israel was given over as a bribe to bind Cleopatra to her father's 
interests, that she might influence Epiphanes either to remain neutral, 
or to declare against the Romans, his protectors. But she shall cleave 
to her husband and not stand, neither be for him, but shall join with 
her husband in congratulating the Roman Senate on the victory they 
had gained over her father at Thermopylae (b.c. 191). 

18. After this shall Antiochus, at the earnest solicitation of the 
^tolians, turn his face unto the isles of Greece, and shall take many : 
hut a military commander (kotzin), L. Scipio, the Roman consul, shall 

•••■ This is the Ptolemy of " The Rosetta Stone," found near Rosetta, 1799, now 
in the British Museum, 



ANTIOOHUS THE GREAT. 365 

cause the reproach offered hy him to cease ; without his own disgrace 
he, Scipio, shall cause it to turn upon Antiochus, by defeating him at 
Mount Sipylus, and repulsing him from every part of Asia Minor. As 
the condition of peace, the Romans required him to pay 15,000 talents ; 
500 down, 2,500 on the ratification of the treatj, and the rest in 
twelve years at 1,000 talents per annum. These terms being acceded to, 
19. he shall turn his face toward the fortress, or capital, of his own 
land, being much at a loss how to raise the tribute. While in the 
province of Elymais, he heard of a considerable treasure in the temple 
of Jupiter Belus. He accordingly broke into it in the dead of night, 
and carried off all its riches. But he shall stumble and fall, and not 
he found ; for the provincials, exasperated at the robbery, rebelled 
against him, and murdered him and all his attendants (b.c. 187). 

20. Then shall stand up in Antiochus' estate, or kingdom, his son 
Seleucus Philopator, one who causeth an exactor to pass over the glory 
of the kingdom ; the business of his reign being to raise the tribute 
for the Romans. But within few days — that is, twelve years — he shall 
he destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle, being poisoned by 
Heliodoras, his prime minister, having reigned long enough to pay 
the last instalment to the Romans. 

21. And in his, Seleucus Philopator 's, place shall stand up 
Heliodorus a vile person, being both a poisoner and usurper, to whom 
they, the authorities of the nation, shall not give the honour of the 
kingdom : hut Antiochus Epiphanes shall come in peaceably, and 
obtain the kingdom by flatteries bestowed on the party of 
Heliodorus. 

22. And with the arms of a flood by which they shall be formid- 
ably invaded, shall they, the Egyptians, he overflown from before 
Antiochus, whom they excite to war by demanding the restitution of 
Coele-Syria and Palestine. And they shall he broken, or subdued ; 
yea, also Onias the prince, or high priest, of the Mosaic covenant, shall 
be murdered, as B.C. 172, it came to pass. 23. And after the league 
made with Ptolemy Philometer, Antiochus shall loork deceitfully after 
his second invasion of Egypt, B.C. 170 ; for he shall come up to 
Alexandria, and he shall become strong ivith a small people, or arm3\ 
By his deceit, 24. he shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places 
of the province to which he reduces Egypt ; and he, Antiochus, shall 
do that which his fathers, or predecessors, have not done, nor his 
fathers' fathers; namely, he shall scatter among his followers, the 
prey, and spoils, and riches : yea, he shall forecast his devices against 
the strong holds of Egypt, even for a time. 25. And he shall stir up 
his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great 
army ; and the king of the south shall he stirred up to battle loith a 
very great and mighty army ; hut he shall not stand : for the 
Alexandrians seeing him in the hands of Antiochus, and lost to them, 
shall forecast devices against him, and place the crown of Egypt 
upon the head of his brother, Euergetes II. 26. Yea, they that feed 
of the portion of Philometer's meat, even his courtiers, shall separate, 
or renounce, him ; and his, Antiochus', army shall overflow Egypt ; 
and many of the Egyptians shall fall down slain. 27. And the 



366 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

hearts of both these kings shall he to do mischief, and they shall speak 
lies at one table, but shall not prosper ; for the end is yet at the time 
appointed. 

28. Then shall Antioclius Epiphanes return into his land with 
great riches ; and his heart shall be against the Holy Covenant : and 
he shall do terrible things against Jerusalem, taking it by 
storm, butchering 80,000 men, making 40,000 prisoners, and causing 
a like number to be sold for slaves. And then shall he return to his 
own land, laden with the spoils of the temple, amounting to 1,800 
talents, or £270,000 (b.c. 169). 

29. At the time appointed, under pretence of restoring Philometer 
to the throne, he shall return, and come toward the south against 
Alexandria to besiege it. But it, this fourth invasion, shall not be as 
the former, or as the latter. He raised the siege and marched 
towards Memphis, where he installed Philometer as king. As soon, 
however, as he had departed, Philometer came to an understanding 
with Euergetes, and they agreed to a joint reign over Egypt. This 
coming to the ears of Antiochus, he led a powerful army against 
Memphis for the purpose of subduing the country. Having nearly 
accomplished his project, he marched against Alexandria, which was 
the only obstacle to his becoming absolute master of Egypt. But 
the Roman embassy, sent at the request of the Ptolemies, met him 
about a mile from the city. They had left Rome with the utmost 
diligence. When they arrived at Delos, they found a fleet of Mace- 
donian, or Greek, ships, on board of which they embarked for 
Alexandria, where they arrived at the crisis of his approach. 
Popilius delivered him the decree of the Senate, and demanded an 
immediate answer. Sorely against his will, he agreed to obey its 
mandate, and draw off his army from Egypt. Thus his invasion 
terminated very differently from the former : 30. for the ships of 
Ghittim shall come against him, and prevent him from incorporating 
Egypt into his Assyrian kingdom of the north." 

All his wrath was kindled at this interference ; therefore he shall 
be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the Holy Cove- 
nant ; for in his return march through Palestine, he detached 20,000 
men under Apollonius with orders to destroy Jerusalem, B.C. 168. So 
shall he do ; he shall even return, and have intelligence loith them that 
forsake the Holy Covenant. 

31. And arms shall stand on Tiis part under Apollonius ; and they, 
the Assyro-Macedonian troops, shall pollute the temple, or sanctuary of 
strength, by shedding the blood of the worshippers in its courts ; and 
they shall take aiuay the daily sacrifice ; and they shall place a strong 
fort and garrison to command the temple, even the abomination that 
maketli desolate, and overawes the nation. 

As soon as Antiochus Epiphanes was returned to Antioch, he 
published a decree by which all his subjects were required to conform 
to his religion. This was aimed chiefly at the Jews, whose religion 
and nation he was resolved to extirpate. Atheneus, a man advanced 
in years, and extremely well versed in all the ceremonies of the 

a Numb. xxiv. 24. 



THE MACCABEES. 367 

Grecian idolatry, was commissioned to carry the edict into effect in 
Jadea and Samaria. As soon as he arrived at Jerusalem, he began 
by suppressing the daily, or burnt offering of continuance, and all 
the observances of the Jewish law. He caused the sabbaths and 
other festivals to be profaned ; forbade the circumcision of children ; 
carried off and burned all copies of the law wherever they could be 
found ; and put to death whoever acted contrary to the decree of the 
king. To establish it the sooner in every part of the nation, altars 
and chapels filled with idols were erected in every city, and sacred 
groves were planted. Officers were appointed over these, who caused 
the people generally to offer sacrifice in them every month, on the 
day of the month on which the king was born, who made them eat 
swine's flesh and other unclean animals sacrificed there. The temple 
in Jerusalem was dedicated to Jupiter Olympus, whose statue was 
placed within it. Thus he did in his great indignation against 
Jehovah and his people Israel. 

32. And such of the Jews as do wickedly against the covenant 
shall Antiochus hy flatteries cause to dissemble. These not only 
" forsook the holy covenant," but " had intelligence " with the king, 
and aided him all they could in the desolation with which he was 
overspreading their country. But the Maccabees and their adherents, 
people loho do knoio their God shall he strong, and do valiantly in war. 
33. And they, even Mattathias and his five sons, &c., that understand 
among the people shall instruct, and encourage, many ; yet they 
of their party shall fall hy the sword, and hy flame, hy captivity, and 
hy spoil, days. 

34. NoiD when they shall fall by these calamities they shall he 
holpen with a little help ; for whilst Antiochus was amusing himself 
by celebrating games at Daphne, Judas Maccabeus had raised the 
standard of independence, and was helping his countrymen in Judea. 
He levied a small army, fortified the cities, rebuilt the fortresses^ 
threw strong garrisons into them, and thereby awed the whole country. 
He defeated and killed Apollonius, and made great slaughter of the 
troops. With 3,000 men he defeated Lysias with 47,000 ; and another 
army of 20,000 under Timotheus and Bacchides ; and in the year B.C. 
170, he gave Lysias a second defeat at Bethsura, by which he dispersed 
65,000 of the enemy. Yet, many shall cleave to them,, the Maccabees, 
with flatteries, for it was a time of trial. 35. And therefore some of 
them of understanding shall fall to try them, and to purge, and make 
them white for the tbie of the end ; hecause it, the time of the end, is 
yet for a time appointed. 

J The thirty-fifth verse of this eleventh chapter brings us down to 
the end of 430 years from the destruction of the city and temple of 
Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. There is here a break in the j)rophecy. 
Nothing more is said about Israel and the king of the north, until the 
prediction is resumed in the fortieth verse, which may be regarded as 
continuous with verse thirty-five. The latter speaks of their being tried 
and made white to, or till, the time of the end, and then the fortieth 
re-introduces the king of the south and the king of the north, and 



368 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

outlines the events they were to bring to pass in that time, and which 
will end in the resurrection, when they who have been tried and made 
white in the long interval, will stand in their lot with Daniel at the 
end of the 1,335 days. With the exception of the " little help " 
derived from the victories of the Maccabees, the history of Israel has 
been a series of calamities to this day ; and will so continue to be till 
the " time appointed " for their deliverance arrives. 

But the Maccabean epoch is particularly interesting as the termi- 
nation of EzehieVs 430 years. The house of Israel, and the house 
of Judah, had been great transgressors of the holy covenant from the 
foundation of the temple in the fourth year of Solomon to the sack 
of the city in the 19th of Nebuchadnezzar. This was a period of 430 
years, which was divided into two periods — namely, one of forty years 
from the foundation of the temple to the apostasy of Rehoboam and 
Judah ; the other, of three hundred and ninety from this apostasy to 
the destruction of the temple. God determined that this long national 
transgression should be punished by as long a retribution. He there- 
fore gave Israel " a sign " of what was coming upon them." This 
consisted in Ezekiel lying on his left side 390 days, and then upon 
his right for 40 days more. By this sign was represented the pros- 
trate condition of Israel for 430 years. The 430 years of transgression 
had not quite ended when the sign was appointed in the fifth of 
Jehoiachin's captivity. The thing signified began to take effect in the 
sacking of Jerusalem. Israel then began to " eat their defiled bread 
among the Grentiles ; " so that the 430 years would end b.o. 161, 
according to my chronology. 

These four centuries of punishment were a very calamitous period 
of Jewish history. They endured a captivity in Babylon for 70 years ; 
for several years more their times were " troublous ;" they were vassals 
to the Persians till their dominion was overthrown by Alexander ; 
afterwards, as we have seen, they were alternately subject to the king 
of the south and the king of the north, and their land became a field 
of battle for the hosts of these Powers, who defiled the temple, and at 
length converted it into a house for the worship of Jupiter. But, a 
very few years before the 430 years were about to expire, Judas 
Maccabeus commenced a war against Antiochus Epiphanes, which ended 
in the recovery of Jerusalem, the purification of the temple from the 
heathen worship, its re-dedication to God, and the erection of Judea 
into an independent kingdom under the Asmoneans, which continued 
until it was placed under Herod the Idumean b}^ the Romans, about 
39 years before Christ. 

THE KING AND THE "STRANGE GOD." 

The 430 years of national retribution being ended, and with it the 
pi'ophecy concerning Israel and the king of the northern horn of the 
Macedonian Goat, a new power is introduced as superseding that of 
the northern king. This power appeared on the territory of the north, 
and absorbed its dominion into itself, so that it became all in all. In 

a Ezek. iv. 1-8. 



THE LITTLE HORN OF THE GOAT — ^DAN. VIH. 369 

^' the vision of the evening and the morning " (Dan. viii.), it is repre- 
sented by a Little Horn standing upon another horn, and is styled 
" a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences." 
Moses describes the same power in these v^^ords, saying to Israel, 
" The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end 
■of the earth swift as the eagle flieth ; a nation whose tongue thou 
shalt not understand ; a nation of fierce countenance, and he shall 
besiege thee in all thy gates."" " His power shall be mighty," said 
Gabriel, " but not by his own power : and he shall destroy wonder- 
fully, and shall prosper and practise, and shall destroy the mighty 
and the holy people. And through his policy, also, he shall cause 
craft to prosper in his hand," or by his power : " and he shall magnify 
himself in his heart, and in prospering shall destroy many ; he shall 
also stand up against the Prince of princes : but he shall be broken 
without hand."'' This is a general description of the power which 
should rule over the Assyro-Macedonian territory as well as over the 
Greco-Egyptian, when " their kingdom " should come to an end for a 
time, that is, until their revival *' in the time of the end." 

I am particularly desirous that this part of the prophecy should 
be understood. Perhaps, what I mean may be better comprehended 
by the following homely illustration. Suppose we were to take a 
goat's horn, and with a fret-saw were to cut out a small piece of its 
sarface. Then fix this piece upon a spring, the lower end of which 
should be fixed inside the horn itself. Now if pressure be applied to 
the small piece it would be brought down to a level with the general 
surface of the horn. In this state, the horn would represent the 
Assyro-Macedonian kingdom under the Seleucidae ; but remove the 
pressure and the small piece of horn would start ap to the height of 
the spring's length. Let this represent the Little Horn upon the 
Goat's horn, and we have the symbol of the power which prevails 
from the conquest of Assyro-Macedonia, B.C. 65, until " the time of 
the end." But if pressure be afterwards applied to the small piece, 
it is brought down to a le\'el with the surface of the horn, and it again 
appears like one horn, for by the pressure the Little Horn is merged 
into it. This last action and its result will represent the merging of 
the liittle Horn power of Constantinople into the Assyro-Macedonian, 
or Russian, Horn of the Goat in the time of the end ; so that the 
Constantinopolitan, and Russo-Assyrian, powers, become one horn, as 
before the Little Horn arose. In the time of the end, the Horn of the 
North, in its enmity against Israel, plays a similar part to that it 
did of old by the hand of Antiochus Epiphanes in the days of 
•Judas Maccabeus. Therefore, he may be fairly taken as the type of 
Israel's last and greatest enemy, who shall come to his end, with none 
to help him. 

This Little Horn power, or " King of fierce countenance," is, in 
the thirty-sixth verse of the eleventh chapter, styled, " the King who 
doth according to his will." This federal potentate must be studied 
in his secular and ecclesiastical characters. His secular, with a hint 
or two of his spiritual, character, is given in the eighth chapter ; while 

a Deut. xxviii. 49, 50, 52. t Dan. viii. 23-25. 



370 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

his ecclesiastical is exhibited more fully in the eleventh, from the 
thirty-sixth to the thirty-ninth verses inclusive. His policy was to 
be of a remarkable description ; for " through his policy he shall 
cause craft to prosper by his power." Hence, his doings with regard 
to another, and that person's words and deeds, are all affirmed of this 
wilful king ; for, it is by his power, as well as through his policy^ 
that this person is enabled to do. Thus, putting them both together, 
for they are one in policy and action, the power is thus outlined by 
the prophet, w^ho says, " And the King shall do according to his 
will ; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every 
god," or ruler, "and shall speak marvellous things against the God 
of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation he accomplished : for 
that that is determined shall be done. He shall disregard all the gods 
of his fathers {ewt Trarrag deovg rioy Tvarepwv avrov ov auyrjaei — Sept.) and 
the desire of wives, nor shall he regard any god : for he shall magnify 
himself above all." 

This is evidently not descriptive of the Pagan Roman power, but 
of that power invested with a new ecclesiastical character. In other 
words, it is descriptive of the imperial Constantinopolitan Catholic 
power. Of all who swayed this sceptre from Constantine, the founder 
of the city, to Palseologus, who lost it to the Turks, the Emperor 
Justinian is the best illustration of the wilful king in his secular 
aspect. " Never prince," says Dupin, " did meddle so much with 
what concerns the affairs of the church, nor make so many con- 
stitutions and laws upon this subject. He was persuaded that it was. 
the duty of an emperor, and for the good of the State, to have a 
particular care of the church, to defend its faith, to regulate external 
discipline, and to employ the civil laws and the temporal power to. 
preserve it in order and peace." 

"Justinian," says Gibbon, "sympathized with his subjects in 
their superstitious reverence for living and departed saints ; his code, 
more especially his novels, confirm and enlarge the privileges of the^ 
clergy ; and in every dispute between the monk and the layman, the 
partial judge was inclined to pronounce, that truth and innocence are- 
always on the side of the church. In his public and private devotions,. 
he was assiduous and exemplary ; his prayers, vigils, and fasts displayed 
the austere penance of a monk ; his fancy was amused by the hope, 
or belief, of personal inspiration ; he had secured the patronage of the- 
Virgin, and St. Michael, the archangel ; and his recovery from a 
dangerous disease was ascribed to the miraculous succour of the holy 
martyrs, Cosmas and Damian. Among the titles of imperial greatness,, 
the name of Pious was most pleasing to his ear ; to promote the 
temporal and spiritual interest of the (Greco-Roman) church was the 
serious business of his life ; and the duty of father of his country was 
often sacrificed to that of defender of the faith. While the Barbarians 
invaded the provinces, while the victorious legions marched under the 
banners of Belisarius and Narses, the successor of Trajan, unknown 
to the camp, was content to vanquish at the head of a synod." 

" The reign of Justinian was an uniform yet various scene of 
persecution ; and he appears to have surpassed his indolent pre- 



THE CZAE IN " THE TIME OF THE END." 371 

decessors, both in the contrivance of his laws, and rigour of their 
execution. The insufficient term of three months was assigned for 
the conversion or exile of all heretics ; and if he still connived at their 
precarious stay, they were deprived, under his iron yoke, not only of 
the benefits of society, but of the common birthright of men and 
Christians." 

Antiochus Epiphanes and Justinian represent " the king "as he 
will be manifested, when, as the king of the north, he appears upon 
the arena, standing up to contend with the Prince of princes, on the 
field of Armageddon ; for he is to " prosper till the indignation be 
accomplished " against Israel. Impious and cruel as Antiochus, and 
superstitious and fanatical as Justinian, with the arrogance, ambition, 
and profanity of the Roman Bishop in his halcyon days, this incar- 
nation of the sin-power in the crisis of its fate, will fully answer to all 
that has been predicated of this king who does according to his will, 
and " for whom Tophet is ordained of old."" At present he is 
represented by the Sultan, who " divides the land for gain." But 
when the Little Horn's sceptre is wrested from his feeble grasp by the 
Autocrat, we shall see in him a potenate, unrivalled in presumption 
and impiety by any of his fathers, not excepting Pharaoh of the 
olden time. 

In times past, the little horn of the goat has admirably illustrated 
the prophecy concerning him. " Through his policy he shall cause 
craft to prosper by his power." In studying the reign of Justinian 
this is remarkably apparent. But before the Horn coald find scope for 
the promotion of the species of craft referred to, it was necessary that 
he should " disregard all the gods of his fathers," that is, embrace 
some other religion than paganism ; in other words, become a Greco- 
Roman Catholic, such as Justinian, who occupied the throne, but did 
not inherit the peculiar superstition of the Caesars. Having discarded 
the gods of his fathers, it suited the Horn's policy to bestow his patron- 
age upon another, who should be a god upon the earth, and residing 
in Rome instead of above the heights of Olympus. 

The testimony of Daniel is, that " In his estate he shall honour 
the god of forces ; " or more intelligibly, " In his kingdom shall he do 
honour to a god of guardians.'" The word rendered " guardians " is 
mahuzzim and signifies munitions. Hence, any real, or supposed, 
persons adopted as protectors, guardians, or patrons, are mahuzzim, or 
munitions of strength and safety. Now the god whom the Little Horn 
of the Goat honoured in his kingdom, was a god of guardian saints, 
who are regarded by his worshippers as protectors and towers of 
strength and security against all " the ills that flesh is heir to." Such 
a god is the Bishop of Rome ; who, to the pagan officials of the Little 
Horn, was unknown, being in their reign only a simple bishop, 
undistinguished from the rest of his class, save that he flourished 
in the capital, and they in the provinces, of the empire. He is there- 
fore styled in the scripture, " a god ivJiom his (the Little Horn's) 
fathers kneiu not ; '' hence he is also termed "a strange god.' ^ But 
though " strange " and unknown to Trajan and the Antonines, he 

« Isaiah xxx. 27-33 ; xxxi. 8, 9. 



372 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

was afterwards brought into notice by Constantine and his successors. 
In 313, he was made chief magistrate of Rome, or, as we would 
say, Lord Mayor, for life. His jurisdiction was confined to the city. 
In 378, however, the Little Horn of the Goat then reigning over the 
east and west, extended his spiritual authority over all the churches 
of Italy and Gaul ; and by the time of Justinian, he was prepared for 
presentation to the nations as spiritual head of the whole Roman 
habitable. He was the god of a new system of idolatry, whose idols 
were the images of Mahuzzim, or *' the ghosts " of pretented saints 
and martyrs, the demi-gods, or demons, of the new Roman mythology. 

In a celebrated letter written by the Emperor Justinian to this 
god of patron saints, dated March, 533, and which thenceforth became 
part and parcel of the civil law, he is recognised as the legal head of 
all the churches of the eastern and western provinces of the empire. 
'' We suffer not," says the imperial writer, " any thing that belongs to 
the state of the churches to be done without submitting it to your 
holiness, who art head of all the churches.'' In this way " the king, 
who did according to his will," " aehnoivledged "^ this " strange god " 
as of supreme spiritual authority " in the most strong holds." 

The work of recognition thus far advanced by Justinian was 
perfected by the edict of the Emperor Phocas, who began to reign in 
603. He also wrote to the Roman Bishop in 604, and acknowledged 
his spiritual supremacy. He was very liberal to the churches, and 
allowed the Pantheon, a temple dedicated to all the gods by his 
fathers, to be turned into a church, or "most strong hold," to all 
the saints. Phocas was a monster in crime, and therefore the better 
qualified for a patron of the Roman Bishop, who hailed him as the 
pious avenger of the church. By this kind of flattery a decree was 
obtained from him by Boniface III., in 606, declaring the Roman 
god UNIVERSAL BiSHOP. Two ycars after, a pillar with a gilt statue on 
the top of it, was erected in Rome to the honour of Phocas, with the 
following inscription — Pro innumerahilihus Pietatis ejus heneficiis, 
et pro quiete proeuratd, ac conservatd lihertate. Thus was memo- 
rialised the fulfilment of the sure word of prophecy, that the Little 
Horn of the Goat should " in his kingdom do honour to a god of 
guardian saints." 

When the Bishop of Rome was honoured as a god by the Tittle 
Horn of the Goat, the other Little Horn had not yet made its 
appearance among the ten horn-kingdoms of the Beast. There elapsed 
266 years from the date of Justinian's letter, and 193 from the decree 
of Phocas, before this came to pass ; for Charlemagne was not 
crowned Emperor of the western third part of the Roman Empire 
till A.D. 799. Upon this occasion, he also "acknowledged and 
increased with glory " the Universal Bishop as a god " ahove every 
god " of his dominions. Through his ]3olicy he also caused craft to 
prosper by his power. Priestcraft gained an ascendancy in Europe 
which it had never attained before the rise of the Germano-Roman 
Little Horn among the kingdoms of the west. By forming an 
alliance with " the Accursed One," all the powers were cemented 

« Dan. xi. '39. 



CHARLEMAGNE AND THE POPE. 373 

together by a bond far stronger than the sword. The Emperors 
perceived this, and shaped their policy accordingly. The influence of 
the Popes in strengthening the imperial authority is well shown in the 
following quotation : 

" There was no general connection existing between the States of 
Europe till the Romans, in endeavouring to make themselves masters 
of the world, had the greatest part of the European States under their 
dominion. From that time there necessarily existed a sort of connec- 
tion between them, and this connection was strengthened by the famous 
decree of Caracalla, by the adoption of the Roman laws, and by the 
influence of the Catholic religion, which introduced itself insensibly 
into almost all the subdued states. After the destruction of the 
empire of the west in 493, the Hierarchial system naturally led the 
several Papal states to consider themselves in ecclesiastical matters as 
unequal members of one great society. Besides the immoderate 
ascendant, the Bishop of Rome had the address to obtain as the 
spiritual chief of the church, and his consequent success in elevating 
the Germano-Roman emperor to the character of temporal chief, 
brought such an accession of authority to the latter, that most of the 
nations of Europe showed for some ages so great a deference to the 
emperor, that in many respects Europe seemed to form hut one society, 
consisting of unequal members subject to one sovereign." 

Thus, then, the " Wicked One " was manifested by the working 
of Satan with all the power of the Little Horn of the Goat, and after- 
wards, of the Little Horn of the west. Strange and unknown to the 
Pagan emperors, he became a god to the wilful king, and Eyes and 
Mouth to the Little Horn of the west ; so that until the capture of 
Constantinople in 1453, he was in some sort a connecting link between 
the two imperial horns. The prophecy before us, however, not only 
foretells his recognition by the Roman power, but sets forth other 
particulars of a striking- and interesting character. 

'« J\IAHUZZIM BAZAARS." 

The text, when literally rendered, throws much light upon the 
subject. Thus, it reads, " In his kingdom shall he do honour to a 
god of guardians, even an Accursed One whom his fathers knew not 
shall he honour loitJi gold, and loith silver, and with precious stones, 
and loith things desired. Thus shall he do in Bazaars of Guardians 
with an Accursed Dissembler, whom he shall acknowledge and increase 
with glory : and he shall cause them to exercise authority over 
multitudes, and he (the Little Horn) shall divide the land for gain." 

There are peculiarities in this translation which I shall notice 
presently ; of the whole text, it may be remarked here, that it is in 
strict accordance with history, and therefore worthy to be received. 
It testifies that the Little Horn of the Goat should do honour to a god 
of guardians with riches, and things desired. Now, to honour a god 
of guardians with such things, is to enrich the institutions dedicated 
to the guardian saints, whose high priest Rome's episcopal god is. In 
meeting the suggestions of the Accursed One, the Little Horn was 
honouring him with " things desired." Justinian was a remarkable 



374 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

instance of liberality to thechurcli and its chief. Besides the magni- 
ficent temple of St. Sophia, he dedicated twenty-five others in that 
city and its suburbs to the honour of the Virgin and the saints : most 
of these edifices were decorated with marble and gold. His munificence 
was diffused over the Holy Land ; throughout which monasteries for 
both sexes were amply diffused. Almost every saint in the calendar 
acquired the honour of a temple ; and the liberality with which he 
honoured them was boundless. He employed 10,000 workmen in the 
erection of St. Sophia, which he finished in five years, eleven months, 
and ten days from the first foundation. No wood except the doors 
was admitted into its construction. Paul Silentiarius, who beheld its 
primitive lustre, enumerates the colours, the shades, and the spots of 
ten or twelve marbles, jaspers, and porphyries, which, nature had pro- 
fusely diversified, and which were blended and contrasted as it were 
by a skilful painter. 

" The triumph of Antichrist was adorned with the last spoils of 
paganism, but the greater part of these costly stones was extracted 
from the quarries of Asia Minor, the isles and continent of G-reece, 
Egypt, Africa, and Gaul. A variety of ornaments and figures was 
curiously expressed in Mosaic ; and the images of Christ, of the Virgin, 
of the saints, and of angels, were exposed to the superstition of the 
Greeks. According to the sanctity of each object, the -precious metals 
loere distributed in their leaves, or in solid masses. The spectator 
was dazzled by the glittering aspect of the cupola ; the sanctuary 
contained forty thousand pounds weight of silver ; and the holy 
vases and vestments of the altar were of the purest ,goZd, enriched with 
inestimable gems^ 

Such are the words of Gibbon ; and no description of things 
could more palpably demonstrate the applicability of the text to any 
other person, than this does to Justinian as the individual emperor 
of the little Greek Horn, who " in his kingdom honoured an accursed 
god of guardian saints in their bazaars with gold, with silver, and 
with precious stones, and with things desired." " Thus shall he do," 
saith the scripture, " in the most strong holds with a strange god," or 
accursed dissembler. In the margin of the passage instead of "in 
the most strong holds,^^ it reads, " in fortresses of munitions," which 
does not help the matter at all. The Hebrew words are le-mivtzahrai 
mahuzzim. The root of mivtzahrai is hahtzar, and signifies " to 
enclose with a wall, or the like, for safety. As a noun, it signifies 
store, or treasure so secured. Derivative — a bazaar, a kind of 
covered market-place among the eastern nations, somewhat like our 
Exeter 'Change, but frequently much more extensive " (Farhhurst's 
Lexicon). *' In the strong holds of Mahuzzim," or "in Mahuzzim- 
Bazaars," comes nearer to the original. Understanding that Mahuzzim 
are deified ghosts, worshipped as patrons and protectors, the question 
need only be asked, what are their strong holds, or bazaars? and 
every reflecting mind will answer immediately — " Why, the churches 
to be sure ! " 

This is the truth. The churches, chapels, and cathedrals are the 
strong holds, and houses of merchandise, dedicated by the prospering 



"dexs of thie^t:s." 375 

craft to guardian-saints and angels. There are tlie images and pictures 
of the saints. They are saints' houses in which are dej)osited their 
shrines ; silver, gold, and ivory crucifixes ; old bones, and various 
kinds of trumpery. They are literally " dens of thieves," without 
ever having been the houses of the Father, where people are robbed 
of their money under divers false pretences. They are places where 
pews are sold by auction ; where fairs are held for " pious objects ; " 
•and where spiritual quacks pretend to cure souls in exchange for 
so much per annum. In view of these facts, the scriptural epithet 
bestowed upon the church-houses of the apostasy is most appro- 
priate. They are truly Bazaars of spiritual merchandise ; and the. 
prospering craft, " the great men of the earth," made rich by 
trading in their wares, are the bazaar-men, who extort all kinds of 
goods from their customers by putting them in fear, and comforting 
them with heavenly pay. The}^ buy and sell under license from 
the State, having received the mark on their foreheads, and in their 
hands. 

The reader may find the catalogue of sale in the eighteenth of 
Revelation. Among the articles of merchandise are (o-w/^a-wi/, kul 
-d^vyac avQpu)-!zix)v) bodies, and souls of men. But the trade of these 
soul-merchants is fast falling into disrepute. Their customers growl 
exceedingly at being compelled to deal at Bazaars, where the profit is 
all on one side. This state of things, however, will not last much 
longer ; for the time cometh it is written, when " no man buyeth 
their merchandise any more." There is often more truth than fiction, 
though not much elegance, in the proverbs of the vulgar ; but the reader 
will now perceive the scripture origin of the term ^'gospel shop,'' as 
applied to places of religious convocation, where men preach gospels at 
so much per sermon, or per annum. I am aware, Paul says, that " the 
Lord hath ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of 
the gospel." This is just and proper. But this ordinance does not 
apply to those who do not preach the gospel, but preach mere human 
tradition instead. These are preachers of other gospels ; and to pay 
them is "to take the bread out of the children's mouths, and cast it to 
dogs," even to "dumb dogs that cannot bark." 

The places where they deal out their traditions are well and truly 
designated shops, or bazaars ; for the system which sanctifies them is 
mere trading in religion, and haggling for a crust of bread. But 
then, bazaars of priestly wares are distinguished from places of 
honourable trade by being dedicated to Maliuzzim. This is a remark- 
able feature in the prophecy, which finds its counterpart in the dedi- 
cation of the churches to guardian saints and angels. St. Sophia at 
Constantinople, St. Peter's at Pome, Our Lady's at Paris, St. Paul's at 
London, and innumerable other bazaars, dedicated to all conceivable 
kinds of saints, and, lest any should be forgotten, to " All Saints," 
and even to " All Souls " — are examples in point. In these bazaars of 
guardians, then, the two Little Horns, and the other Horns, " through 
their policy have caused craft to prosper by their power ; and have 
done honour to the god of guardians with gold, and silver, and j^re- 
cious stones, and things desired." 



37G THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 



CHAPTER Y. 

THE EASTERN QUESTION IN THE TIME OF THE END. 

It is impossible that the Holy Land can be for ever siibject to the Gentiles. — It is. 
to be wrested from them in the course of " the time of the end." — Of Daniel's 
2,400 days. — Of the beginning of "the time of the end." — Of the king of the 
south at that time. — The Autocrat of Russia the king of the north at "the time 
of the end." — England and the Jews. — Of Gogue and Magogue. — -Ezekiel's 
and John's two different and remote confederacies. — -Daniel's king of the north 
of " the time of the end," and Gogue of " the latter days," the same. — The 
Gogue of Ezekiel proved to be Emperor of Germany and Autocrat of all the 
Russias. — Gomer and the French. — Sheba, Dedan, the Merchants of Tarshish 
and its young lions, identified as the British power. 

Our paraphrase was discontimied (page 367), at the end of the thirty- 
fifth verse of the eleventh chapter of Daniel. It left Antiochns 
Epiphanes, the king of the north, at war with the Jews under Judas 
Maccabeus, who were fighting against fearful odds for their very 
existence as a nation. 

The prophecy about the Little Horn king led our attention off 
from events in the land of Israel to others in Italy and Constantinople 
where we beheld the Little Greek Horn, and after him, the Little Latin 
Horn, doing honour to the Roman Bishop, and converting him into a 
god in their respective dominions. But, though the testimony directed our 
attention to Rome, in order that we might be able by the transactions 
of which that city was the centre, to identify the power represented by 
"the king who did according to his will," before it dismisses the Little 
Horn by pressing it down into the Assyrian Horn of the Goat, our 
thoughts are again turned upon Israel and their interesting country, 
by the prophet telling as that the Little Greek Horn " shall divide the 
land for gain.*' This treatment of the Holy Land is particularly char- 
acteristic of the Ottoman power which has possessed the country since 
1509, when it was incorporated with the Turkish empire by Selim IX. 
It has been divided by his successors to their pashas literally " for 
gain ; " by which the ruin of the country was made sure and expedi- 
tious.'-'-" Having purchased principalities in it at enormous prices, they 
make a conscience of reimbursing themselves in the shortest possible 
time by every kind of extortion : well-knowing, in past times at least, 
that if a higher price were offered than they had given, their heads 
would soon appear at Constantinople, in attestation of their dangerous 
posts being occupied by equally unscrupulous exactors. 

But, is the Holy Land to continue for ever as it is at this day ? Is 
the Little Horn of the Goat always to divide it for a price among his 
pashas ? These are questions of great interest to all who believe the 

*And "the Little Latin Horn" has done the like throughout all its section 
of Anti-Christendom, as the division of the land into " parishes," and the " tithes " 
testify to this day. 



THE CLEANSING OF THE SANCTUARY IN " THE TBIE OF THE END." 377 

gospel of the kingdom of God and his Christ. If the reader have 
accompanied me through this volume, he will, I doubt not, be ready to 
answer in full assurance of faith and hope, with an emphatic " No, 
it is impossible." Yea, verily, it is impossible that it can always be 
desolate and subject to the horns of the Gentiles. If it were, the 
kingdom of God could never be established ; for the Holy Land is the 
territory of the kingdom. To all, then, who believe " the things of 
the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ," how intensely 
interesting must the future destiny of this country be ! Well may it 
be said by the prophet, " Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep 
not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make 
Jerusalem a praise in the earth. "<* 

But when and hoio shall the land of Israel be wrested from tlie 
Little Horn of the Goat ? As to the when, the prophecy contained in 
the last six verses of the eleventh chapter plainly informs us, that it 
shall be m the Time of the End ; " for to the time of the end shall be 
the vision."^ This period is also termed, " the last end of the indigna- 
tion ; for at the time appointed the end shall be."'^ In other words, 
the luinding up of the vision shall he at the expiration of a given time. 
The next question is. What given time is this, and when does it 
expire ? In reply to this, I remark that the only time given in con- 
nection with the vision of the Ram and He-Goat, and the prophecy 
connected with it, is a long interval of 2,300 years from the evening 
to the morning of the vision-period. The Septuagint reads 2,400'^- ; 
and the Hebrew may not be better authority than the Greek transla- 
tion here, and that says 2,300, as in the common version. Assuming, then, 
2,400 is correct, the question is still before us. When does this period 
expire ? A similar inquiry is made in the text, namely, " How long 
the vision ? " "At," or till, " the time of the end shall be the vision." 
Then the 2,400 years are to reach no further than the time of the end, 
the duration of that end not being defined by the time of the vision. 
. . . To repeat the question, " How long the vision (concerning 
the taking away of ) the daily, and the treading down b}^ that which 
maketh desolate, to give both the holy (land) and the host (of Israel) 
to be trodden under foot ?" To this question it was replied, " Unto 
2,400 days ; then shall the holy (land) be cleansed." We are not to 
understand by this, that the Holy Land would be cleansed in the 
2,401st year ; but that the 2,400 years being expired, the subsequent 
event to be brought about would be the cleansing of the land of Israel. 
This is a work that requires time, and cannot possibly be accomplished 
till after the battle of Armageddon. 

I say that " the cleansing of the sanctuary " is the cleansing of 
the land of Israel ; and I cannot conceive how any other interpretation 
can be put upon it in the face of Ezekiel's testimony short of 
this. He predicts the fighting of a great battle in the land of Israel 
" in the latter days,'' which is synonymous with " the time of the 
« Isaiah Ixii. 6, 7. ^ Dan. viii. 17, 19. 

■•^- Only the Vatican MS. Documentary evidence so far does not seem to warrant 
the "2,400." At the same time, it is obvious that an "evening morning" is 24, 
and not 23 hours. And this seems to necessitate the " 2,400 " reading. 



378 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

end.^^ He describes it as taking place between the Lord God and a 
great northern power, which is signally defeated upon the mountains 
of Israel. The heaps of slain are enormous ; for it takes seven 
months to bury them, and seven years to use up their weapons as 
fire-wood for domestic purposes. " Seven months," says Ezekiel, 
*' shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse 
the land.'' Then describing the thorough manner in which the 
buriers shall do their work, so that not a single bone shall be left 
visible, he finishes this part of his prediction by saying, " Thus 
shall they cleanse the land.'' 

But, if the 2,400 years terminate at the time of the end, when do 
they commence, that we may know when the time of the end begins ? 

The solution of this problem will be found in Chronikon 
Hebraikon appended to this edition. It is there shown that the 
" evening-morning " period of Dan. viii. 14, should read 2,400 instead 
of 2,300 ; and that the reed or rule by which the beginning of this 
time of the vision should be ascertained is, that the time of a vision 
must he computed from the first event foreshadowed in the vision : 
inasmuch that it cannot be perceived that there is any valid reason for 
the exclusion of any of the events of a vision from its time. My sus- 
picion was not awakened with regard to the correctness of the 
reading of this text on the publication of the former editions of this 
work. I am, however, now satisfied that 2,300 is a corruption of some 
of the Hebrew manuscripts in the hands of Western Jews, from which 
it found its way into modern versions. 

In this vision of Dan. viii., the first event the prophet sees is the 
last horn of the Ram Power overtopping the first — verse 3. This 
event came to pass B.C. 540, when the Persian Dynasty of the Ram 
represented by Cyrus superseded the Median at the death of Darius 
the Mede. Can any good reason be given why this coming up of the 
higher horn last should not be included in the 2,400 ? I can see none. 
I accept it, therefore, as the beginning of the vision's evening-morning 
time. Hence the question, ''How long the vision of the Daily and of 
the transgression making desolate, to give both the Holy and the Host 
for a trampling ? " — must be understood as an inquiry, " How long 
shall it be from the Persian Horn overtopping the Median Horn to 
the Time of the End, when the Holy and the Host shall no longer be 
given over for a treading down? " — for " to the time of the end shall 
be the vision "—verse 17. The answer to the question reveals the 
terminal epoch. So long a time was to elapse before *' The Day of 
Vengeance " came. The 2,400 would not include the day of vengeance, 
Imt would conduct to that terrible epoch, concurrent with the end of 
the Sixth, and all the quadragintal period of the Seventh, vials ; that 
is, an epoch commencing with the opening of the third section of the 
Frog Sign in which the advent occurs, and continuing in all the 
period of the Seventh Vial, in which the Seven Thunders utter their 
voices, and ending with this last vial, which occupies the forty years 
of Israel's Exodus testified of in Mic. vii. 15. 

Now, if my computation be correct, namely, that the 2,400 years 
terminated in 1860, and that this was the beginning of the time of the 



THE KING OF THE SOUTH IN " THE TIME OF THE END." 379 

end, we onglit then to find on the political map a "king of the south/' 
a "king of the north," and the Little Horn of the Goat, all contem- 
porary. Besides this, we ought to find the king of the south making 
war on the Little Horn, and the land of Israel should be the subject 
of the strife. I say we ought to find these things in the time of 
the end, because the time of the vision, or 2,400 years, is to the 
time of the end ; " for at the time appointed the end shall be : " 
and it is also written, "He^;" the Little Horn of the Goat, 
" shall divide the land for gain. And at the time of the end 
the king of the south shall push at him ; and the king of the north shall 
come against him."" It is evident from this that at the time of the 
end, there are to be two horns of the Goat and the little horn all 
coexistent, and as hostile in their policy as in the days of Antiochus 
Epiphanes. 

These are the things which ought to be, but what do we find ? 
The answer is just what the prophecy requires. There is the reign- 
ing king of Egypt, or of the south ; ■•■ the Russian Autocrat, king of 
the north, and the Sultan, the representative of the Little Horn of the 
Goat. The two former were brought up upon the territories of the 
ancient kings of the north and south, by the pouring out of that 
determined upon the Little Horn, subsequently to 1820, when the 
sixth vial began. There had been no kings of the north and south 
upon the Eastern Roman territory for many centuries previous to this 
period. The war between Russia and the Porte, however, in 1828 
advanced the frontiers of the Russian empire to Asia Minor, Ararat, 
and thence to the Caspian ; by which a considerable portion of the 
territory of the old Assyro-Macedonian kingdom is included in the 
■dominions of the Autocrat. He is, therefore, in relation to Judea, 
the king of the north and representative of Antiochus Epiphanes. 
He is also " the Assyrian " of the latter days, for whom Tophet is 
ordained of old. 

Very soon after the Russian war which ended in 1829, Mehemet 
Ali established himself as king of the south. He attacked and con- 
quered Syria, and for a time was lord ascendant of the east. This 
exaltation opened new prospects to Mehemet, and he aspired to the 
throne of the Sultan. The time of the end was not far off, there 
being only a few years of the 2,400 years to expire. In 1838, Mehemet 
Ali, king of the south, " pushed at " the Sultan. Hitherto he had 
■confined his operations to Egypt and Syria, but now at the closing 
of the war he pushed for Constantinople, and advanced as far as 
Smyrna ; and but for the interference of the great powers, uncon- 
sciously " to establish the vision," he would doubtless have dethroned 
him. Wearied of this state of affairs, which endangered " the balance 
■of power," England, Russia, Prussia, and Austria undertook to 
establish peace, and to place things on a permanent footing. They 
ordered the king of the south to surrender Syria, including Palestine, 
to the Sovereignty of the Little Horn ; and to restore the Turkish 

a Dan. xi. 39, 40. 

* Britain is now fZe/actoKing of the South (see The Christadelphian, January, 1900). 



380 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

fleet, which had revolted from the Sultan during the war. Mehemet 
refused to do either ; contending that Syria was his as a part of his 
kingdom for ever by right of conquest ; and the fleet, as the spoils 
of war. These great powers, however, were not to be trifled with. 
They were willing that the throne of Egypt should be hereditary in 
his family ; but determined that he should only be Pasha of Syria for 
life. But Mehemet would not yield, and the result was, that the 
allied fleet bombarded the cities of the Syrian sea-board, and took 
possession of St. Jean d'Acre. They again offered him " all that 
part of Syria, extending from the Gulf of Suez to the lake of 
Tiberias, together with the province of Acre for life," if he would 
restore the Turkish fleet. But he still refused, and in the autumn 
of 1840, they compelled the Egyptians to evacuate the country, and 
determined he should not have it at all ; and threatened that if he did 
.not restore the fleet in ten days, they would bombard him in 
Alexandria. Prudence at length overcame the obstinacy of Mehemet ; 
he therefore yielded, and surrendered the ships within the time. 
Thus, the land of Israel was returned to the sovereignty of the Little 
Horn, and Mehemet restricted to the kingdom of Egypt ; so that as 
the result of the sixth vial down to 1840, the political geography of 
the east had been so changed, that there now existed the king of the 
south in Egypt, the king of the north towards Ararat, and the 
dominion of the Little Horn of the Goat between them, extending to 
the Euphrates. 

Such are the important events which mark the end of the 2,400 
years, and the approach of the time of the end. They are evidential 
of the time soon arriving to which the Lord refers, saying, " I ivill 
remember my covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I ivill 
remember the land.'""' Mehemet Ali claimed the land as his for ever ; 
but Jehovah hath said, " The land shall not be sold for ever ; for the 
land is mine." If, then, the Lord would not permit the Israelites to- 
alienate it from one to another for ever, he would be far from permitting 
Mehemet to possess it, or the Allies to grant it to him, for ever. The 
hand of God may be clearly discerned in the events of this epoch. He- 
hardened the king of Egypt's heart not to accept the land on any 
other terms than his own, which were certain not to be granted. 
If they had yielded to his demand, " the eastern question " would 
have been diplomatically settled, and the course of events 
regarding Israel turned into a different, and perhaps, opposite,, 
channel ; but as the affair of 1840 has left the country, its destiny 
remains to be the subject of a future arrangement, when the 
dominion of the Little Horn subsides into that of the Russo-Assyrian 
Horn of the Goat. 

The eleventh chapter of Daniel is therefore fulfilled as far as the 
first colon of the fortieth verse."'- The things which remain to be 

« Lev. xxvi. 42. 

■••• Query : May not a British "push" at Russia in Turkey bring on the over- 
whelming storm ? Mehemet All's rebellion of 70 years ago does not now (1903) 
seem more than an incipient fulfilment. 



THE RUSSIAN INUNDATION OF THE LATTER DAYS. 381 

accomplished in the time of the end are briefly outHned in the 
remaining part of the chapter. The king of Egypt having pushed 
at the Little Horn, as we have seen, the next event of the prophecy is 
an attack upon him by the king of the north, as it is written, " And 
the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with 
chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships ; " that is, the 
Russo- Assyrian autocrat shall attack Constantinople by sea and land, 
and with such whirlwind impetuosity that the Sultan's dominion 
shall be swept away. The whirlwind-nature of the attack implies, I 
think, not only its overwhelming character, but that when it is made, 
the allies of the Sultan will be off their guard ; that is, by the Auto- 
crat's assurances of peace and moderation for which they will give 
him credit, Constantinople will be left unprotected, and it will fall 
into his hands before they can come to the rescue. To " push at 
him,'' and to " come against him,'' are phrases which imply more than 
simple invasion : they indicate likewise the direction that invasion is 
to take. In the case of the king of the south, when he " pushed at 
him," he directed his course towards Constantinople, but he did not 
*' come against him," because he was stopped by " the powers." The 
king of the north, however, is to do more than push, he is actually to 
" come against " the Sultan, which can only be done by sitting down 
before Constantinople. 

It is not to be supposed that the Autocrat would attack the Porte 
without some provocation, real or pretended. It is therefore the 
mission of the Frogs, as we have seen in a former chapter, to bring 
about such a state of things as will involve the Autocrat and Sultan 
in war.-'- The reader will perceive, then, that the operation of the 
Frog-power comes in between the attacks of the king of Egypt, and 
the Russo-Assyrians, upon the Porte. The policy they originate is to 
involve the whole habitable in war, the more immediate effect of which 
will be, that " the king of the north shall enter into the countries, and 
shall overflow and pass over." To " enter into the countries " implies 
invasion ; but to " overflow and pass over " indicates conquest. The 
result of the conquest will be that " many countries shall be over- 
thrown." 

Of the horn-kingdoms, it is predicted, saying, " These shall make 
war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them ;"°- and again, 
" The Beast and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered 
' together to make war against him that sat upon the horse, and against 
his army. And (these) the remnant were slain with the sword of him 
that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth : 
and all the fowls were filled with their flesh."^ Now, this field of 
battle is to be the valley of Megiddo in the land of Israel. In view 
of this, has the question ever occurred to the reader, what possible 
inducement could there be for the kings of Belgium, Spain, Portugal, 
Italy, &c., to march their armies into Palestine? What inducement 
was there for the kings of Europe to meet Napoleon at Dresden, and 

a Rev. xvii. 14. ^Rev. xix. 19, 21, 17, 18; Ezek. xxxix. 17-21. 
■•••■ See page 348, footnote. 



382 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

to march their armies into Russia in 1812 ? It was compulsion, and 
not inclination. A similar cause will operate on them again. When 
the king of the north "overflows and passes over " their countries, 
they will become subject to him as their emperor ; and when his 
autocracy shall attain the extent marked out for it in the word, his 
dominion will be fitly represented by Nebuchadnezzar's Image, of 
which they will be the toes. They must exist as regal parts of a great 
dominion until Christ comes ; because they are to war with him in 
person ; and because God will set up His kingdom in their time; and, 
having broken to pieces the power of their imperial ruler on the 
mountains of Israel, by that same kingdom He will " break in pieces 
and consume all their's." 

The overthrow of the Saltan will not be contemplated by the 
British Government with indifference. They have already beheld 
continental Europe to the confines of Russia subject to the will of one 
man, and they are destined to witness it again. They will unquestion- 
ably adopt all possible measures to circumvent the Autocrat. England's 
Indian Empire, and its contiguity to A siatic Russia, make her his natural 
enemy. It will be her policy to prevent him from taking possession of 
Egypt and the Holy Land ; for if he were to do this, he would 
intercept all communication between England and India by the Red 
Sea. Hence, while she is the natural enemy of the Autocrat, she is 
also the natural friend of Egypt and the Jews. The triumph of Russia 
in the west will cause her to strengthen herself in the east ; and, as I 
shall show, she will take possession of Sheba, Dedan, Edom, Moab, and 
part of Ammon ; colonise Judea with Israehtes, and form an intimate 
alliance of offence and defence with Egypt."'-'' Thus the Red Sea will 
become a British lake ; and by holding Gibraltar, Aden, and some 
commanding position at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, she will be 
enabled to retain for a short time longer her commercial and maritime 
ascendancy. 

But these measures of the British will be the means of luring on 
the Autocrat to his destruction. Having fulfilled the mission of his 
" sacred Russia " to put down rebellion, to plant the Greek cross on 
the dome of St. Sophia, and to prostrate Europe at his feet, he will 
next address himself to the work of establishing his dominion over 
the east. The prosperity of Egypt and Judea will tempt him to seize 
them for himself ; for, as the prophet saith, *' He shall enter also into 
the glorious land, and many shall be overthrown ; but these shall 
escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the 
children of Ammon." He will have proclaimed war against the east ; 
and at the head of his vassal kings and their armies have invaded 
Syria. The war will be bloody, and his hosts, like a cloud to cover the 
land. Having over-run Syria, and Persia, he will invade Egypt, Libya, 
and Ethiopia. For it is written, " He shall stretch forth his hand also 
upon the countries : and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he 
shall have power over the treasures of gold, and of silver, and over all 
tlie precious things of Egypt : and the Libyans and Ethiopians shall 

■••• Something more than this since 1882. 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA IN THE TIME OF THE END. 383 

be at his steps." This subjugation of Egypt arouses all the indig- 
nation of Britain. England's interference'-"'' troubles him ; for " tidings 
out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him : therefore he 
shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away 
many." Judea will now feel the weight of his power. He will lay 
siege to Jerusalem, and take it ; for, "He shall pitch his palatial tents 
in the glorious holy mountain." " Yet," though thus far triumphant, 
"he shall come to his end, and none shall help him." As a further 
elucidation of this portion of the book of Daniel, I shall now proceed 
to speak of the prophecy in relation to 

OOaUE AND MAaOGUE.« 
Tov Tioy Kai rov Maywy. 

These names occur together in two remarkable prophecies, the 
one delivered through Ezekiel,^ and the other through the apostle 
John.'' No portion of scripture has been more mangled, perhaps, than 
these ; yet there is none, as it appears to me, more easy to be understood. 
An illustration of popular opinion on the subject may be seen in 
Guildhall, or in " the Lord Mayor's Show," where two huge giants 
appear, whom the wise men of Gotham have rhantized " Gog and 
Magog ! " Interpreters have enlightened the public upon this subject 
about as much as the wooden giants themselves. They generally 
confound the Gogue and Magogue of Ezekiel with the Gogue and 
Magogue of the Apocalypse ; but if the reader carefully examine the 
two testimonies, he will find that they have reference to different times 
exceedingly remote from each other. The Apocalyptic Gogue and 
Magogue are the nations and their leader, who rebel against the 
government of Christ and his saints, 1,000 years after the binding of 
the Greco-Roman Dragon is finished. They are the then existing 
nations outlying the land of Israel on the north, south, east, and west ; 
who, being seduced from their allegiance, revolt and invade Canaan, 
and lay siege to Jerusalem, but are destroyed by fire from heaven. 
They are styled Gogue and Magogue because the confederacy is similar 
to that of Ezekiel's prophecy ; being a combination of the posterity 
of the same populations to invade the same land, and take possession 
of the same city, and for the same purpose — namely, to seize the 
sceptre of universal empire, which has been the matter of contest 
since God first put enmity between the seed of the serpent and the 
seed of the woman. 

If the reader compare the two prophecies, he will discern the 
following diversities, which prove them to be confederacies belonging 
to different epochs. 

^ I spell these names as they should be pronounced. ^ Ezek. xxxviii. 2-3: 
xxxix. 6. <= Rev. xx. 8. 

■•"■ The " tidings " seem rather to have to do with the subsequent inter- 
ference of " Michael the Great Prince." Sennacherib was troubled by tidings or 
a " rumour " of Tirhakah's advance, and drawn off from Jerusalem to Libnah, 
where his blasphemies were avenged in the angelic destruction of his army. The 
King of the North is troubled by tidings out of Jerusalem, and is drawn against 
the city to encounter the Lord (Zech. xiv.). 



384 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

1. The Gogue of Ezekiel invades Judea *' in the latter days ;" but 
the Apocalyptic Gogue does not invade the land till 1,000 years after 
the binding of the dragon ; 

2. Ezekiel's Gogue goes forth from the north ; John's, from the 
four corners of the earth ; 

3. The Ezekiel-Gogue's invasion is the occasion of the Lord's 
manifestation, and therefore pre-millennial ; but that of John's is after 
the Lord has reigned with his saints on earth 1,000 years, and therefore 
post-millennial ; 

4. The Lord himself brings the Ezekiel-Gogue against his land ; 
but some arch-rebel stirs up hitherto loyal nations against the govern- 
ment, and as the Apocalyptic Gogue and Magogue defy the king 
already in Jerusalem ; 

5. The Lord brings the Ezekiel-Gogue up to battle against Jeru- 
salem, that he may be made known to the nations ; but John's Gogue 
has known him for 1,000 years. 

The prophecy of Ezekiel concerning Gogue evidently relates to a 
power that is to arise hereafter ; for the Lord says in his address to 
its chief, " In the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is 
brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, 
against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste : but 
it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all 
of them. In another verse of this chapter, the "latter years" are 
termed "latter days," as it is written: "And thou shalt come up 
against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land ; it shall he 
in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land." This 
testimony shows, that there will have been a gathering of the Jews to 
some extent before Gogue invades their land ; and that this gather- 
ing is subsequent to a long desolation of the country. Hence, those 
acquainted with Jewish History will perceive directly, that the pre- 
diction has not been fulfilled ; but is yet in the future, and belongs 
to " the time of the end," which is synchronous with " the latter 
days." 

The prophecy of Gogue synchronises with the events set forth in 
the forty-first verse of the eleventh chapter of Daniel. In short, Ezekiel's 
prophecy of Gogue is an amplification of Daniel's concerning the king 
of the north. That these two powers are the same will be manifest 
from the following considerations : 

1. Gogue, or the prince of Eos, is king of Meshech and Tubal, 
therefore he is the king of the north geographically ; those countries 
being north of the Holy Land, which, according to the covenant, 
extends to Amanus and the Euphrates ; 

2. Gogue is to invade the land of Israel " from the north parts " 
and " in the latter days ; " and the king of the north is to enter into 
the same country at the same time ; therefore, as they come against 
the same enemy and at the same time, they must be one and the same 
power ; 

3. The Libyans and Ethiopians belong to Gogue's army ; and 
Daniel testifies, that " the Libyans and Ethiopians are at the steps of 
the king of the north," that is, they- march among his troops ; 



GOGUE AND THE KING OF THE NORTH THE SAME POWER. 385 

4. Hostile tidings come to Gogue from Sheba and Dedan east- 
ward ; •••* and from " the Merchants of Tarshish and the young lions 
thereof " northward : t so, also, " tidings out of the east and out of the 
north," says Daniel, " shall trouble the king of the north ; " 

5. Gogue is to " fall upon the mountains of Israel," where he and 
his multitudes are to be buried ; so the king of the north having 
encamped " between the seas in the glorious holy mountain," the 
hill-country, "comes to his end" there, with "none to help him: " 
and, 

6. Gogue unexpectedly encounters the Lord God in battle on the 
mountains of Israel ; and the king of the north contends with Michael 
the great prince, who standeth up for Israel, and delivers them : they 
are both defeated and deprived of dominion by the same supernatural 
power. 

Here, then, are six particulars which clearly establish the identity 
of Gogue with the king of the north. The multitudes they are destined 
to lead into the Holy Land are the " all nations " which Zechariah 
has predicted the Lord will gather together against Jerusalem, to 
destroy them in battle with a small exception,"^ and whose slain are 
" the carcases of the men that have transgressed against the Lord, 
whose worm shall not die, nor their fire be quenched ; and who shall 
be an abhorring to all flesh,"'' who pass through " the valley of the 
passengers on the east of the sea : "'^ for the consumption of their 
bodies by the worm will commence while they are yet standing alive 
upon their feet f so that like Antiochus Epiphanes, the stench of 
their consuming bodies will " stop the noses of the passers by." 

ROSH, MESHECH, AND TUBAL. 

The prophet Ezekiel is addressed by Jehovah as the type, or 
representative, of Him, who is to vanquish Gogue on the mountains 
of Israel. Hence, He says to him, " Son of Man, set thy face against 
Gogue, of the land of Magogue, the prince of Bosh, Meshech, and 
Tubal, and prophecy against him " (R.V.). In this title to the pro- 
phecy, the antagonists are indicated, namely, the Son of Man on one 
side, and Gogue on the other. But, while it is quite clear who the 
Son of Man is, it is but little understood what power is represented 
by Gogue. It will, therefore, be my endeavour in the following 
pages to identify this adversary of Israel and their king ; so that 
the reader may know which of " the powers that be " is chosen of 
God to personate the serpent's head when it is crushed by the 
woman's Seed. 

The Jews appointed by Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, to 
translate the Old Testament into Greek, gave a different rendering 

« Zech. xiv. 2. ^Isaiah Isvi. 24. <=■ Ezek. xxxix. 11. ^ Zech. xiv. 12. 

■••• Say rather, southward ; " the Queen of the South " (Matt. xii. 42 : 
2 Chron. ix. 1). 

t " All the youug hons thereof " : i.e., from x^sia, Africa, Aiaerica, and 
Australia. See footnote page 383. 



386 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

of the title to that which appears in the Authorised English version. 
They rendered the original by Tioy, apxopra Pwe, Me<rox, i^ai Go/3e\, 
i.e., Gogue, Prince of Eos, Mesoch, and Thohel ; so that the difference 
of the two translations turns upon the Hebrew word rosh being 
regarded as a proper, or common noun. The Seventy were sensible 
that in this place it was not an appellative noun, but a 'proper name; 
and they rendered it accordingly by Bos. Bat Jerome not finding any 
such proper name among the nation-families mentioned in Genesis, 
rather disputed the Septuagint reading, and preferred to consider the 
word Ros as a common noan ; and his interpretation, established in 
the Latin Vulgate, has universally prevailed throughout the west. 
Jerome, however, was more scrupulous than the editors of later ver- 
sions, who have unqualifiedly rejected it as a common name ; for 
although he inclined to the other rendering, he did not feel authorised 
to reject altogether one so ancient, and he has therefore preserved 
them both, translating the passage thus — ''Gogue, terram Magogue^ 
principem capitis (sive Ros) Mosoch, et Thubal.'' 

But the question between the phrases " the chief prince," and 
" the prince of Ros," has been long set at rest by the concurring 
judgment of the learned, who have adopted the primitive interpreta- 
tion of the Alexandrine Jews. And although the common English 
version has not the benefit of their decision, yet the title of the pro- 
phecy has been generally received among the erudite portion of the 
western nations for nearly 200 years, according to the ancient Greek 
interpretation ; that is to say, as uniting the three proper names of 
nations Ros, Mose, and Tohl. By the insertion of vowels, or vowel- 
points, the Hebrew words have been made to assume the different 
forms of Meshech, Mesoch, Tubal, and Thohel : but, as the meaning of 
Hebrew words depends not on the points, but upon the radical con- 
sonants, or letters, it may be as well to express these names by the 
forms and elements of the original words, for by so doing we keep 
nearer to the original idea, and are less likely to be mystified by 
hypothesis. " Ros," says David Levi, " is not an appellative, as in 
the common translation of the Bible, but a proper name." The word 
" chief " ought, therefore, to be replaced by the proper name Ros, or 
Rosh. 

But what nations are signified hy these three proper names 9 This 
question has been long since determined by the learned. The cele- 
brated Bochart, about the year 1640, observed in his elaborate re- 
searches into Sacred Geography, that POS, Ros, is the most ancient 
form under which history makes mention of the name of Russia ; 
and he contended that Ros and Mosc properly denote the nations of 
Russia and Moscovy. " It is credible," says he, " that from Rhos 
and Mesech (that is the Rhossi and Moschi) of whom Ezekiel speaks, 
descended the Russians and Moscovites, nations of the greatest cele- 
brity in European Scythia." We have, indeed, ample and positive 
testimony, that the Russian nation was called P02, Ros, by the 
Greeks in the earliest period in which we find it mentioned, as, Edyog 
^e 6t VioQ '2,KvdiKoy, Trepi rov apKrcjov Tavpoy ; that is, " the Ros are a 
Scythian nation, bordering on the northern Taurus." And their own 



EOSH, MESHECH, AND TUBAL. 387 

historians say, "It is related that the Russians (whom the Greeks 
called Pwc, Ros, and sometimes Pojaog, Rosos) derived their name 
from Ros, a valiant man, who delivered his nation from the yoke of 
their tyrants." 

Thus, then, we discern the modern names of Russia and of 
Moscow, or Moskwa, in the ancient names of Ros and Mosc, or Muse. 
It is not difficult to recognize in Tobl, Tubl, or Thobel, a name which 
naturally connects itself with them ; and which, in conjunction with 
them, tends, in a very remarkable manner, to determine and fix the 
proper object of the prediction. The river Tobol gives name to the 
city ToboKiim, or Tobolski, the metropolis of the extensive region of 
Siberia, lying immediately eastward of the territories of Moscovy, or 
Mosc. Tobol and Mosc are mentioned together by Ezekiel, who 
characterizes them as nations trading in copper ;" a metal which, it is 
notorious, abounds in the soil of Siberia ; a region which includes all 
the northern part of Asia which borders on Russia to the west, on the 
Ice-Sea to the north, on the Eastern Ocean on the east, and on Great 
Tartary to the south. And thus the three denominations Ros, Mosc, 
and Tobl, united in prophecy, point out, with equal capacity and con- 
ciseness, those widely extended regions, which, at the present day, we 
denominate collectively The Russian Empire. 

Gogue is styled the " Prince of Ros, Mosc, and Toll," that is. 
Autocrat of the Russians, Moscovites, and Siberians, or of " All the 
Russias." But he is also styled " Gogue of the land of Magogue," 
as well. There is something important in this. It affirms that he is 
sovereign of Magogue as well as prince of all the Russias ; for there, 
at the time of the prophecy, is his proper dominion. " Whoever 
reads Ezekiel," says Michaelis, " can hardly entertain a doubt that 
Gogue is the name of a sovereign, and Magogue that of his people ; 
the prophet speaks of the former, not as a people, but as an Emperor." 
Let us, then, now inquire, where is the region styled Magogue ; that 
we may be enabled to ascertain of what people besides the Russians 
Gogue will be the Emperor. And as Gomer, and Togarmah of 
the north quarters, are represented as being connected with him, we 
shall also endeavour to find out what modern nations will answer to 
these names. 

MAGOGUE AND GOMER. 

We know from the Hebrew scriptures that Magogue and Gomer 
were the names of two sons of Japhet ; and it is to ancient Hebrew 
authority alone that we can resort to learn where, according to the 
common repute of the Israelites, the nations which descended from 
these two heads of families, and which long retained the proper names 
of those heads, were spread and established. Josephus says, "that 
Japhet, the son of Noah, had seven sons ; who, proceeding from 
their primitive seats in the mountains of Taurus and Amanus, 
ascended Asia to the river Tanais (or Don) ; and there entering 
Europe, penetrated as far westward as the Straits of Gibraltar, occu- 
pying the lands which they successively met with in their progress ; 

« Ezek. xxvii. 13. 



388 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

all of which were uninhabited ; and bequeathed their names to their 
different famihes, or nations. That Gomer founded the Gomari, 
whom the Greeks, at that time, called Galatae — rovg wv v^' EXXrjviov 
TaXXaraQ tcaXovfxevovg ; — and that Magogue founded the Magogae, whom 
the Greeks then called Scythae, SKw6ai." It only, therefore, remains 
for us to ascertain, which were the nations that the Greeks, in the 
time of Josephus, called Scythse, and which they then called Galatm ; 
and to observe whether the geographical affinities of these nations are 
such as answer to those which are plainly required by the prophecy 
for Magogue and Gomer. 

Herodotus, the most ancient Greek writer accessible, acquaints us 
"that the name Scythse was a name given by the Greeks to an 
ancient and widely extended people of Europe, who had spread 
themselves from the river Tanais, or Don, westward along the banks 
of the Ister, or Danube." " The Greeks," observes Major Rennel, 
** appear to have first used the term Scythia, in its application to their 
neighbours, the Scythians of the Euxine, who were also called 
Geto^, or Gothi ; and were those who afterwards subdued the Roman 
empire : and from which original stock the present race of people in 
Europe seem to be descended." And again, " the Scythians of 
Herodotus appear to have extended themselves in length from 
Hungary, Transylvania, and Wallaehia, on the westward ; to the 
river Don on the eastward." Thus the testimony of Herodotus and 
Josephus is in perfect agreement concerning the progress of Magogue 
and Gomer. In these same regions the Scythee continued many ages 
after Herodotus, and even long after the time of Josephus ; for Dio 
Cassius, who lived 150 years after Josephus, and above 200 after 
Christ, relates, that Pompey, in his return into Europe from Asia, 
" determined to pass tq the Ister, or Danube, through the Scythse ; 
and so to enter Italy." These were the original Scythse. But 
Herodotus states further, that a portion of the same people, in an 
after age, turned back upon the European seats of their fathers, and 
established themselves in Asia ; and from these sprung the Asiatic 
Scythse, who, in process of time, almost engrossed the name to 
themselves. 

Since the name of Scythse, i.e., Magogue, is to be considered not 
by itself, but in geographical connection with Galatas, or Gomer, we 
have only to inquire, whether any geographical affinity is really 
ascribed by the Greeks to the Scythse and Galatse ? and to ascertain 
to what regions of the earth those names, so associated, were applied. 
If we can discover these two points, we ought thereby to have dis- 
covered specifically the Magogue of the prophecy, which is to be 
associated with the region, or people of Gomer. 

Diodorus Siculus, who lived about a century before Josephus, 
traces them much further into Europe than the Danube ; even to the 
shores of the Baltic, and to the very confines of the Galatce of the 
Greeks. In speaking of the amber found upon the shores of that sea, 
he there places the region expressly denominated, " Scythia above, or 
north of, Galatia." In which description we at length find the Scythse, 



SCYTHIA AND GALATIA. 389 

or Magogue, in the immediate neighbourhood of the Galatas of the 
Greeks, or Gomer. 

Galatia, TaXana, is the common and familiar name used by all the 
earlier Greek historians for Gaul, the Gallia of the Latins ; and 
Galatse, TaXarai, is the common Greek name for Gauls, or the Galli 
of the Latins. Thus, " all the Galatse " (or Gauls), says Strabo, 
"were called Celtae by the Greeks;" and the converse is equally 
true: "the Celtse were called Galatse by the Greeks, and Galli by 
the Latins." To inquire, who were " the Galatae of the Greeks ? " is» 
therefore, the same as to inquire who were the Galli of the Romans ? 
A colony of these Galatse, or Galli, indeed, in the third century 
before Christ, emigrated from Gaul and established themselves in 
Asia Minor; where they were ever after called by their Greek name, 
Galatians. Diodorus' " Scythia above Gaul extending towards the 
Baltic," accurately describes that large tract of Europe above the 
Rhine, or northern houndary of Gaul, through which flow the rivers 
Elbe, Ems, and Weser. Here, and in the countries immediately 
adjoining, were the Scythe hordering upon the Galat^ on the 
north ; that is to say, a considerable part of Magogue, geographically 
associated with Gomer.-'- Diodorus elsewhere describes the northern 
part of Galatia, or Gaul, as confining upon Scythia. " The Greeks," 
says he, " call those who inhabit Marseilles and the inland territory, 
and all those who dwelt towards the Alps and the Pyrenean Moun- 
tains, by the name of Celts ; but those who occupy the country lying 
to the northward, between the Ocean and the Hyrcynian mountain, 
and all others as far as Scythia, they denominate Galatae ; but the 
Romans call all those nations by one collective appellation, Galatse ; 
that is, Galli." These geographical affinities unite in the name of 
Celto-Scythse, mentioned by Strabo. " Tij^e ancient Greeks," says 
he, " at first called the northern nations by the general name of 
Scythians ; but when they became acquainted with the nations in the 
West, they began to call them by the different names of Celts, Celto- 
Scythse ; " and again, " the ancient Greek historians called the 
northern nations, collectively, Scythians, and Celto-Scythae ; " which 
latter name plainly denoted the most western portion of the Scythse, 
adjoining Gaul ; of the number of whom were the Scythae on the north 
of the Galatae, or the S/cv0at VTrep TaXanay. 

In this general description may easily be discerned that extended 
portion of the West of Europe, comprehending ancient Gaul, Belgium, 
and the countries bordering upon them, which constituted in our day 
the Napoleon empire. Gomer, then, points immediately to France. It 
is a curious coincidence that Louis Philippe paid his visit to England 
in the Gomer ; when this vessel was thus named, did they adopt it 
allusively to their country being originally peopled by the descendants 
of Gomer? "Scythia above Gaul," or Magogue above Gomer, or to 
the north of it, through which flowed the Elbe, Ems, and Weser, was 

"•••■ " Gomer, ex quo Galatae, id est, Galli," that is to say, " Gomer, from whom, 
proceeded the Galatte, that is, the Gauls." Isidor. Origin, lib. ix. He wrote 
about A.D. 400. 



390 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

the country from whence proceeded principally that renowned people, 
who, in the early ages of Romanism, formed an extensive confederacy 
with their kindred nations upon the Rhine, which had migrated suc- 
cessively thither from the regions of the Danube ; and who, under 
the common denomination of Franks, overran Gaul, and subdued it ; 
and finally establishing their power and population in the conquered 
country, permanently superseded the name of Gaul by that of France. 
" As for the seats of the Franks," says the " Universal History," " it 
appears from their constant excursions into Gaul, that they dwelt on 
the hanks of the Rhine, in the neighbourhood of Mentz. All historians 
speak of them as placed there till their setthng in Gaul. Their 
country, according to the best modern geographers and historians, 
was bounded on the north by the Ocean ; on the west by the Ocean 
and the Rhine ; on the south by the Maine ; and on the east by the 
Weser." 

These, therefore, were the KeXro-ltKvdai, or ^Kvdai v-n-ep rrjy TaXanaPj 
the Celto-Scythians, or Scythians on the northern confine of Gaul ; 
that is, Magogue in contiguity with Gomer. The Chaldean inter- 
preter applies the name of Magogue to the Germans ; in short all the 
ancients looked for the Magogue of scripture in the West. The 
Scythes of Asia, who, as we have seen, were only a partial emigration, 
or reflux, from their ancient stock in Europe, cannot, with any sound- 
ness of criticism, be taken account of in this argument. 

" Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands," is also to 
form a part of the Gogue's confederacy against the Holy Land in " the 
time of the end." There is little said about Togarmah in history 
beyond conjecture. He was a son of Gomer, therefore his posterity 
would migrate originally from the same locality as Gomer' s other 
descendants — namely, from the mountains of Tauras and Amanus ; 
but, instead of going westward with their brethren, they diffused 
themselves over "i/ie north quarters,^^ that is, relatively to Judea. 
Ezekiel says, " The house of Togarmah traded in the Tyrian fairs 
with horses, and horsemen, and mules. ''°' Hence doubtless they were 
a nomadic people, tending flocks and herds in the pasture lands of 
the north, where nature favoured their production with little care and 
expense. Russian, and Independent, Tartary are the countries of 
Togarmah, from which in former times poured forth the Turcoman 
cavalry, '* which," says Gibbon, " they proudly computed by millions." 
Georgia and Circassia, probably, are " bands of Togarmah's house." 

These, then, are the regions which are to supply the numerous 
and formidable armies with which their arrogant and mighty Emperor, 
prophetically denominated Gogue, is hereafter " to ascend as a cloud " 
against the Holy Land, not long after he shall have gone, "like a 
whirlwind," against the Little Horn. Let us now consider, as briefly 
as possible, the applicability of this word to the Prince of Ros, Mosc, 
and Tobl. 

*' Gogue of the land of Ma-gogue," that is, styling the ruler of 
Magogue by the latter syllable of the name of the country over 

a Ezek. xxvii. 14. 



THE NAME GOGUE. 391 

which he rules. We have seen that Magogue is the region extending 
from the Eos, or Russia, to the Ehine, comprehending Wallachia, 
Transylvania, Hungary, and Germany. Of course the prophecy must 
be future, because the Prince of the Ros is the Gogue of Magogue ; 
and as yet no Emperor of Russia has been also Emperor of Germany, 
&c. But why is the future autocrat of Gomer, Magogue, Ros, Mosc, 
Tobl, and Togarmah, styled Gogue ? 

There is no name in the Bible which has more puzzled the critics 
than this of Gogue. The depths of Hebrew etymology have been 
explored in vain, and the versatile efforts of ingenuity in vain exerted, 
in the search of a mystical sense which might attach to this name. 
But Gogue is a Gentile, and not a Hebrew name ; and Michaelis has 
correctly remarked, " that the origin of a barbaric, or foreign name, 
ought not to be sought for in the Hebrew, nor in any of its kindred 
tongues, as many have erroneously done." A writer some thirty-five 
years ago, who very incorrectly applied the name to Napoleon, refers 
to Fredegarius' History as the only satisfactory account of any person 
of the name of Gogue. Without adopting his application of it to the 
French Emperor, I will give the substance of what he says con- 
cerning it. 

It is a proper name well known to continental history ; and borne 
in one notable instance by an ancient ruler, which answers imme- 
diately to the Magogue of the scriptures. Gogue was the proper 
name of the Major Domus Regise, or chief of the palace, who, after 
having been exalted by the voice of the nation to the highest authority, 
fell by a violent and sanguinary death. The name of this personage 
appears in the history which is written in Latin under the double form 
of Gogo (onis) and Gogns (i.) ; these different terminations and 
inflexions having been suffixed to the original name. But although 
modern authors have followed those Latin forms, the name has never- 
theless been preserved in the vernacular tongue, with its genuine, 
original, and simple enunciation of Gogue. 

About sixty years after the death of Sigebert, King of Austrasia, 
A.D. 575, Fredegarius undertook to write the history of his reign ; in 
which he gives the following account of Gogue : — 

" When Sigebert (grandson of Clovis) saw that his brothers had 
contracted marriages with women of inferior condition, he sent Gogue 
on an embassy to the King of Spain, to demand his daughter, Bruna, 
in marriage. The King sent her, with great treasures, to Sigebert ; 
and in order to add greater dignity to her name, it was changed to 
Brunechildis. Sigebert received her for his consort, with great 
rejoicings. 

"Prior to this event, and during the infancy of Sigebert, the 
Austrasians had made choice of the Duke Chrodinus, to be Major 
Domus Regise, or chief of the palace ; because he was a man of 
vigorous conduct in affairs, fearing God, endued with patience, and 
possessing no quality but what rendered him dear both to God and 
men. Chrodinus rejected the honour proffered to him, saying, ' I am 
unable to establish peace in Austrasia, for all the nobles and gentry 
of all Austrasia are allied to me by blood ; and I have not the power 



392 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

of enforcing discipline among tliem, or of taking away the life of any 
man. They will all rise against me to follow their own superstitions ; 
and God forbid, that their actions should draw me into the condemna- 
tion of hell. Choose ye, therefore, from among yourselves whom ye 
may approve." 

" When they could find no one they chose Gogue, the tutor of the 
prince, by the advice of Chrodinus, to be the Major Domus Regise. 
And on the following morning, Chrodinus repaired the first to the 
dwelling of Gogue, and placed his arm upon his neck ; which the rest 
perceiving, they all followed his example. And thus was the govern- 
ment of Gogue prosperous ; until he brought Brunechildis out of 
Spain. But she soon rendered him odious to Sigebert, who, by her 
instigation, put him to death." 

The high authority of Gogue while he held the reigns of the 
Austrasian Government, is strongly marked in the complimentary 
poems addressed to him by Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers, a distin- 
guished poet of that age ; from one of which the following passage, 
translated from the Latin, may be worthy of selection, on account of 
its geographical references, so remarkably connecting the proper name 
of Gogue with the Rhenish section of Magogue. 

TO GOGUE HIMSELF. 

Ye cloTids whose course the northern winds impel, 

Of my lov'd Gogue some grateful tidings tell ! 

Say, with what health his valued life is blest ; 

What peaceful cares engage his tranquil breast. 

If on the banks of Rhine awhile he stay, 

Where the rich salmon yields itself a prey. 

Or where Moselle through vineyards guides her stream, 

While gentle breezes cool the sultry gleam, 

Or flowing waters mitigate the heat 

And with fresh waves the bowery margins greet. 

Or where the Meitse in murmurs soft is heard, 

Mid threefold wealth, of vessel, fish, and bird. 

Or where the Aisne through grassy banks is borne, 

Whose waters nourish pasturage and corn. 

Or if by Oise, by Sm'e, by Cher, or Scheld, 

Somme, Samhre, Saur, the loitering Chief beheld. 

Or when the Settle, with mouth expanded, laves 

Metz' stately bulwarks with her copious waves. 

Or if in forest shades he seeks his prey. 

With toil, or spear, to capture, or to slay. 

Or if on Ardenne's wild, or Vosge's height, 

The echoing woods resound his arrow's flight. 

Or if, return'd beneath his princely dome, 

Their lord, a zealous people welcome home. 

Of the origin, or family, of Gogue, the first Maire du Palais, or 
Dax Francorum, of the kingdom of Austrasia, no mention is made in 
history ; but it is plainly to be collected from the words of Chrodinus, 
that he had no consanguinity with either the nobles or the gentry — 
the " primates," or " liberi," of that kingdom ; and it seems equally 
implied in the words of Fredegarius, that he was not a native of the 



THE ALLEGORY OF GOGUE. 393 

kingdom, since tie was elected to his dignity, because the Austrasians 
could find no one among themselves. 

Thus, it is evident that Gogue is an historical character, and that 
he was Regent of a part of Magogue. Now, it is probable that, be- 
cause of certain peculiarities in his history in relation to Magogue, God 
selected his name as the prophetic title of one who should rule over 
the same country in " the time of the end." The resemblances between 
the historical and prophetic Gogues may be stated as follows. I shall 
distinguish them as Gogue I. and Gogue II. 

1. Gogue I. was a foreigner ; Gogue II. will be one likewise, 
belonging to the Eos, and not to the Germans ; 

2. Gogue I. became sovereign in fact, though not de jure ; Gogue 
n. will become sovereign in fact by conquest ; 

3. Gogue I. became ruler in a time of confusion, bacause the 
native princes could not maintain order ; weakness of the sovereigns, 
and anarchy of the people, will precede the de facto sovereignty of 
Gogue II. aJso ; 

4. Gogue I., though exalted to the highest post of honour and 
power, short only of the legitimate sovereignty, was precipitated from 
his high estate by a violent death. This is also the destiny of the 
prophetic Gogue, who is to " come to his end, and no one shall 
help him." 

With these premises before us, I have no doubt that the following 
paraphrase will present the reader with the true import of the 
exordium to the prophecy of Ezekiel concerning Gogue. 

" Son of Man, set thy face against Gogue, the Emperor of 
Germany, Hungary, &c., and Autocrat of Russia, Moscovy, and 
Tobolskoi, and prophecy against him, and say. Thus saith the Lord 
God : Behold I am against thee, Gogue, Autocrat of Russia, 
Moscovy, and Tobolskoi : and I will turn thee about, and put a bit 
into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth from the north parts, and 
all thine army, horses, and horsemen, all of them accoutred with all 
sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all 
of them handling swords : among whom shall be Persians, Ethio- 
pians, and Libyans ; all of them with shields and helmet : French and 
Italians, &c. ; Circassians, Cossacks, and the Tartar hordes of Usbeck, 
&c. : and many people not particularly named besides. Be thou 
prepared ; prepare thyself, thou, and all thy company that are 
assembled unto thee ; and be thou Imperial Chief to them." 

From these premises, then, I think, there cannot be the shadow 
of a doubt that the Autocrat of Russia, when he shall have attained to 
the plenitude of his power and dominion, is the subject of the 
prophecy contained in the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth of EzekieL 
This personage at present is only " Autocrat of All the Russias," that 
is, of Ros, Mosc, and Tobl ; while the Emperor of Austria holds t])e 
position of the Gogue and Magogue. But, as we have seen elsewhere, 
the Austrian and German empire is doomed to extinction by fire and 
sword ; so that when this is broken up the Gogueship will be assumed 
by the Autocrat, or "prince of Ros, Mosc, and Tobl." 



394 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

Having proved, as I think, that the phrase *' Gogue of the land of 
Magogue" signifies Emperor of Germany, and that the particular 
emperor referred to will also be the " prince of Ros, Mosc, and Tobl " 
— that is, that at some time hereafter, and that not far off, a Czar of 
Russia will be both Emperor of Germany and Autocrat of All the 
Russias — I proceed to remark that, although the Son of Man is his 
conqueror, he is to be antagonized by another power before he comes 
to fight his last battle, in which he loses both his life and crown. 
Ezekiel informs us that Gogue's earthly adversary occupies the countries 
of Sheba, Dedan, and Tarshish ; and that when the Autocrat (for 
Gogue is an autocrat, ruling by his own will) invades the Holy Land 
for the purpose of spoiling the Jews, the Lion-power of these countries 
assumes a threatening attitude, and dares him to execute his purpose. 
" Art thou come to take a spoil ? Hast thou gathered thy company 
to take a prey ? " Thus it speaks to Gogue : as much as to say, 
" Thou shalt not spoil Israel and subdue their country, if we can 
help it." 

The prophet Daniel, however, shows that the only effect of these 
threatening tidings is to make him furious ; for he says, " Therefore 
shall he go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away 
many." But furious as Daniel represents him, Ezekiel testifies that 
he meets with one more potently furious than himself. But this is not 
the Lion-power of Tarshish, but the Lord God himself " whose fury 
comes up into his face," when he beholds the extortioner and 
spoiler" ravening upon his prey. The lion-and-merchant-power of 
Tarshish will not be permitted to usurp the glory of the Lion of the 
tribe of Judah. It is to the latter that Jehovah hath assigned the 
work of delivering His people from the destroyer. The Lion-power of 
Tarshish, which will possess Edom and Moab, and Ammon, as well as 
Sheba and Dedan, will be indeed a covert to Jehovah's outcasts ;" and 
therefore will " Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of 
Ammon escape out of his hand : " but it is only Michael the great prince, 
who commands the artillery of heaven, than can " break in pieces 
the oppressor." The men upon the face of the land shall shake 
at his presence; and the solid earth itself will be convulsed. He 
will turn their swords against themselves ; and Judah shall fall 
upon them, and augment the slain.^ Mutual slaughter and pestilence 
will be aggravated by terrors from above ; for " the Lord of hosts 
will visit them with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, 
with storm and tempest,"*' and *'an overflowing rain, and great 
hailstones, fire,- and brimstone."'^ "Thus," saith he, " will I magnify 
myself, and sanctify myself ; and I will be known in the eyes of many 
nations, and they shall know that I (Jesus) am the Lord." 

But what is the lion-power of which Ezekiel speaks ? To ascer- 
tain this we must direct our attention to the countries named in con- 
nection with " the young lions." Of these, Sheba and Dedan are 
districts of Arabia. The men of Dedan are in the list given by 
Ezekiel of the traders in the Tyrian fairs. The Dedanim carried 
thither the ivory and ebony which they procured from " the many 

"Isaiah xvi. 4. ^ Zech. xiv, 14. •Isaiah xxix. 5-8. ^ Ezek. xxxviii. 18-22. 



SHEBA, DEDAN, AND TARSHISH. 395 

isles " to the eastward, and " precious clothes for chariots." Sheba 
carried the " chief of all spices, precious stones, and gold." Dedan 
and Sheba were those parts of Arabia which lay convenient to the 
ivory, gold, precious stones, and spice countries of Africa and India. 
The Sultan of Muscat now rules the country of Dedan ; while the 
British have planted their standard on the soil of Sheba, at Aden, the 
Gibraltar of the Red Sea, and key of Egypt. . . . The British 
power is the lion-power of Sheba.'-'-* 

As to Tarshish, there were two countries of that name in the geo- 
graphy of the ancients. Jehoshaphat built ships at Eziongeber, a 
port of the Red Sea, that they might sail thence to Tarshish. Now 
it will be seen by the map that they could only sail southward 
towards the straits of Babelmandeb, from which they might then steer 
east, or north for India. As they did not sail by compass in those 
days, but coastwise, they would creep round the coast of Arabia, and 
so make for Hindostan. They might have sailed southward again 
along the coast of Africa instead of to India ; but it is not likely they 
did, as the commerce of the time was with the civilised world, and 
not the savage. The voyage occupied them three years. In the days 
of Solomon the trade was shared between Israel and the Tyrians ; for 
*' he had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram ; once in 
three years came the navy of Tarshish bringing gold and silver, ivory, 
and apes, and peacocks.^^ These products point to India as the 
eastern Tarshish — a country which has always conferred maritime 
ascendancy oa the power which has possessed its trade and been its 
carrier to the nations. 

But there was also a Tarshish to the north-west of Judea. This 
appears in the case of Jonah, who embarked at Joppa, now Jaffa, on 
the Mediterranean, " to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the 
Lord." It is evident he must have sailed westward. It is not exactly 
known where the western Tarshish was situated. It was a country, 
however, not a city, whose " merchants " frequented the Tyrian fairs. 
Addressing Tyre, the prophet says, " Tarshish was thy merchant by 
reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches ; with silver, iron, tin, 
and lead, they traded in thy fairs." These metals are the products 
of Britain, celebrated by the Phoenicians as Baratanac, or " the land 
of tin," as some construe it. The merchandise of the northern 
Tarshish, and of the eastern, identifies Britain and India with the 
two countries of that name ; and Sheba and Tarshish in the prophecy 
of Gogue are manifestly indicative of the Lion-power of the Anglo- 
Indian empire. 

But, in corroberation of this, I remark further, that the lion-power 
is represented also as a merchant power j in the words, *' the Merchants 

* In the Scripture genealogies (Gen. x. 6, 7 : xxv. 1-3), the names Sheba and 
Dedan occur both in the third generation of the descendants of Ham, and in the 
tenth generation of those of Shem ; the latter being the grandsons of Abraham by 
Keturah, These gave their names to the Arabian countries spoken of here by Dr. 
Thomas. The Hamitic Sheba and Dedan seem to indicate a North African country 
near Cush, or Ethiopia. British power is now established on the Upper Nile and 
in the Soudan ; and thus, here also ** is the Lion-Power of Sheba." 



396 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

of Tarshish. shall say unto Gogue." Having ascertained the geography 
of Tarshish, it is easy to answer the question, Who are its merchants ? 
This inquiry will admit of but one answer, namely, the British East 
India Company, which is both the merchant and ruler of the elephant- 
tooth country of the east. But the association of " the young lions of 
Tarshish " with the " merchants of Tarshish," makes this still more 
obvious ; for it represents the peculiar constitution of the Anglo-Indian 
government.-'-" As every one knows, this government is neither purely 
a merchant-sovereignty, nor a purely imperial one like that of Canada, 
but a combination of the two. The Honourable Company has no 
power in Canada, but, with its imperial partner, the firm is omnipotent 
in India. Now the imperial member is represented in the prophet by 
*' yoang lions : " that is, the lion is chosen to represent the imperial 
British power, as the Ram and the Goat, the self-chosen emblems of 
the nations, were adopted to symbolise that of the Persians and Mace- 
donians. Young rams and young goats were civil and military officials 
under the ram and goat sovereignties ; so also " young lions " are the 
same under the old Lion of England. This, the lion-power, is repre- 
sented in the government of India by " the Board of Control," and 
the imperial forces which serve with the Company's troops in the 
Indian army. The merchants of Tarshish govern India under the 
control of the lion-power — a constitution of things well represented in 
the Company's arms, which are a shield whose quarterings are filled 
with young lions rampant, with the motto " Auspicio Senatus 
Anglice.'' From these facts, it may be concluded, that the united 
imperial power of Britain and merchant-power of India, is the power 
of the latter days, destined of God to contend with the Autocrat, when, 
having laid all Europe prostrate, his ambition prompts him to grasp 
the sceptre of the east. 

But the lion-power of Britain has not yet attained the limit marked 
out for it by the finger of God. The conquest of Persia by the 
Autocrat will doubtless cause England to conquer Affghanistan, and 
to seize upon Dedan that she may command the entrance to the Per- 
sian Gulf, and so prevent him from obtaining access to India either 
by land or sea. Possessing Persia and Mesopotamia, the appre- 
hension of his pushing still further southward, and perhaps establish- 
ing himself on the north-eastern coast of the Red Sea, and so taking 
them in the rear and gaining access to India by the straits of Babel- 
mandeb, will also be a powerful motive for the merchants of Tarshish 
and its young, lions to take possession of all the coast from the Gulf 
of Persia to the Straits, and thence to Suez, by which the lion-power 
will not only become the Sheba and Dedan, but also the Edom, Moab, 
and Ammon, of " the latter days ; " for in speaking of the events of 
these days, the prophets refer not to races of men, but to powers on 
territories designated by the names of the people who anciently 

■•■•'The prophet says " all the young lions thereof." The whole British Empire 
is a " merchant "-dominion. The British East India Company, The Hudson's Bay 
Company, The British South Africa Company, &c., are illustrations of the dominion 
of " the Merchants of Tarshish." 



THE FUTURE MAGNITUDE OF GOGUE's DOMINION. 397 

inliabited them. Hence, for instance, the Lion-power planted hereafter 
in the ancient territory of Moab, becomes the Moab of the latter days ; 
so that when the countries before-named are possessed and settled by 
the British, they will be men of Dedan in Muscat, men of Sheba in 
Aden and Mocha, and Moabites, Edomites, and Ammonites in their 
several territories. Thus, the prophecies concerning those countries 
in their latter-day developments have regard to the power to which 
they then belong, and which, I have no doubt, will be the British ; 
which, together with the Autocrat's, though henceforth always rival 
dominions, will endure until both powers be broken up by the Ancient 
of Days. 

It may be as well in this place to recall the reader's attention 
briefly to the vision of the four Beasts." The Lion, the Bear, and the 
Leopard, the symbols of the Assyrian, the Persian, and of a greater 
dominion than that comprehended in the four heads of the Leopard, 
or horns of the Goat ; therefore, I will call it Alexandrine :^ these 
three Beasts are represented in the vision as outliving the destruction 
of the Fourth Beast, or Roman Dragon. Speaking of this, the prophet 
says, " I beheld till the beast was slain, and his hody destroyed, and 
given to the burning flame." Having seen his violent death, he goes 
on to say, " As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their 
dominion taken away ; yet a prolonging in life was given them for a 
season and a time." The meaning of this is, that at the consumma- 
tion of the judgment, the territories comprehended in the dominions 
of the four beasts to their full extent will be divided between two 
independent dominions of the Latter Days — namely, that of Gogue, 
and that of the Lion of Tarshish. Gogue's will include so much of 
the territory as to entitle his dominion to be represented by Nebuchad- 
nezzar's Image. Assyria proper, Persia, Asia Minor, Armenia, and 
Mesopotamia ; Egypt, Italy, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Portu- 
gal, Sardinia, Naples, Lombardy, Bavaria, Hungary, and Greece — 
countries all included in the catalogue given by Ezekiel in his prophecy 
of Gogue — are symbolized by the head, breast, body, thighs, legs, and 
toes of the Image. These are at the crisis united together in one 
dominion, which is broken to pieces as the result of the battle of 
Armageddon. Gogue's yoke being broken off the neck of these 
nations, Assyria and Persia resume their independence ; but they do 
not retain it long, for it is " taken away," yet they continue separate 
states for 1,000 years, only ruled by the saints, whom the Lord may 
appoint over them. 

The Lion of Tarshish is Alexandrine in its dominion, and will then 
possess much of the territory represented by the Unicorn Goat and 
the Leopard — all, indeed, not included in the Image. Alexander the 
Great extended his conquests over Affghanistan, the Punjaub, and 
into India beyond the Indus. The Lion of Tarshish has already 
annexed much of his territory, indeed quite sufficient to confer upon 
it Unicorn and Leopard attributes. Its supremacy over the Ionian 
Republic still further approximates it to the Macedonian character ; 
which will become still more conspicuous, when it beholds " the prince 

» Dan. vii. ^ Dan xi. 3, 4. 



398 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

of Bos, Mose, and Tdbl " possessed of Constantinople, and contend- 
ing for the Gogueship of Magogue ; it will then, doubtless, make 
extensive seizures of the isles of Greece, to strengthen itself in the 
Mediterranean, and to antagonise as much as possible the power of the 
Autocrat in that direction. Thus, then, answering to the Leopard of 
the latter days, the Lion of Tarshish survives the destruction of the 
Lnage. But subsequent events will affect it in common with the Lion 
and the Bear ; for though it may, in alliance with Assyria, and Persia, 
hold out for a time against the Stone of Israel, its *' dominion will be 
taken away ; " for the kingdom he is to establish will " break in 
pieces and consume all these kingdoms ; " yet Assyria, Persia, and 
Britain will continue to exist as people for "a season and a time," 
being subject and obedient to the King of Israel, in the light of whose 
government they will walk with joy, and lay their wealth and honour 
at his glorious feet. 



THE RESURRECTION OF ISRAEL. 399 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE RESURRECTION OF ISRAEL— THE SECOND EXODUS— THE 
MILLENNIUM—" THE END." 

The restoration of Israel indispensable to the setting up of the kingdom of God. — 
Israel to be grafted into their own olive on a principle of faith. — Not by Gentile 
agency, but by Jesus Christ, will God graft them in again. — Britain, the pro- 
tector of the Jews, as indicated by Isaiah xviii. — The British power in the 
south, the Moab, &c., of " the latter days." — The second exodus of Israel. — The 
nations of the Image to be subdued by Israel to the dominion of their king. — 
The New Covenant delivered to Judah, and the kingdom of God set up in 
Judea.— The returning of the Ten Tribes to Canaan will occupy forty years. — 
Elijah's mission. — Israel re-assembled in Egypt. — They cross the Nile, and pass 
through the Red Sea, on foot. — They march into Canaan, receive the New 
Covenant, and, re-united to Judah, foi-m one nation and kingdom under Christ 
for 1 ,000 years. — The blessedness of the nations, and their loyalty to Israel's 
king. — Of the end of the thousand years. 



In the previous chapters the reader has been conducted to the crisis 
that awaits the world at the conclusion of the time of the end. The 
two great powers of the day — namely, Gogue, the lord of the earth, 
and the Lion of Tarshish, the king of the sea, have been brought up 
in battle array in the region of the Dead Sea. This state of things 
will have been created by the angel of the sixth vial, whose province 
it is to gather the kings of the earth and of the whole habitable, 
with their armies, into the land of Israel, which is " the great wine- 
press of the wrath of God "" for a space of 200 miles. This will be 
brought about upon the same principles as the fulfilment of all other 
prophecies in ages past — namely, through the policy of '* the powers 
that be," controlled hy God. The insurrection of " the earth" in 1848 
has created the situation, in which the Roman question, the German 
question, and the Turco-Hungarian question, have become the elements 
of an inevitable war throughout Europe, which will terminate in the 
final destruction of the Austrian Empire and the Papacy, and the 
subjection of the Porte and the toe-kingdoms to the Autocrat. 

But without some other element to complicate affairs, things might 
settle down into a mere substitution of one gigantic despotism for the 
many lesser ones that now exist. It is necessary, therefore, that some 
other ingredient be introduced into the mess, in order that the course 
of events may be directed into an eastern channel, by which the crisis 
may be transferred from Europe to the Holy Land. This political 
element is found in the commercial interests of Britain in India ; in 
the importance of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt being in the possession 
of a friendly people to the preservation of those interests ; and in 
the policy of colonising Palestine with Jews, and so attaching them to 
the interests of the country by which they are protected. Thus the 

« Rev. xiv. 19, 20. 



400 THE KINGDOMS OF Tp: WORLD. 

ascendancy of the Autocrat in Constantinople and the West, by the 
jeopardy in which it puts the commerce and dominion of the Lion- 
power, excites the British Government to the adoption of a policy 
which, in its application to emergencies as they arise, elaborates the 
restoration of the Jews, and the resuscitation of the East; 

The restoration of Israel is a most important feature in the divine 
economy. It is indispensable to the setting up of the Kingdom of 
God ; for they are the kingdom, having been constituted such by the 
covenant of Sinai, as it is written, " Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of 
priests, and a holy nation."" The apostles understood this well enough, 
and so do all who understand the Gospel of the Kingdom. After his 
resurrection, Jesus conversed with them during forty days, " speaking 
of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God." This was certainly 
long enough, under the instruction of such a teacher, to enable them 
to understand the subject well. It took possession of their minds and 
hearts, and created in them a desire for its immediate establishment. 
Hence, they put the question to him, saying, *' Lord, wilt thou at this 
TIME restore again the kingdom to Israel ? "^ 

It is evident from this, that they regarded Israel as having once 
possessed the kingdom, and expected the same Israel to possess it 
again. No other meaning can be put upon their words ; for to restore 
a thing *' again " to a party implies that they had once possessed it 
before. When Israel had the kingdom, they were ruled by Israelites, 
and not by Gentiles, for a foreigner could hold no office under their 
law. This was not the case in the days of the apostles, for they 
were ruled by the Roman Senate, and kings of its appointment. But 
it wiU not be so when the kingdom is restored to them again. The 
horns of the Gentiles will then be cast out of the land, and they will 
be ruled by " Israelites indeed," who will have become Jews hy adop- 
tion ; for no Jews or Gentiles after the flesh can have any part in the 
government of Israel and the Israelitish empire, which will embrace 
all nations, unless their Jewish citizenship is based upon a higher 
principle than natural birth. The flesh constitutes a Jew a siibjeGt of 
the kingdom, but confers on him no right to sit and rule upon the 
thrones of the house of David. This is reserved for Christ and his 
apostles, who " shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes 
of Israel," when he sits upon the throne of his glory ; and for all 
other Jews and Gentiles who shall have become " Jews inwardly,'' 
for whom the dominion under the whole heaven is decreed in the 
benevolence of God. 

There are several strange fancies in the world concerning the 
restoration of the Jews. Some deny it in toto, and yet impose upon 
themselves the imagination that they believe the gospel of the kingdom ! 
If any such have followed me through this work, they will, I think, 
long since have concluded that they have been in error. Others ad- 
vance a little further, and regard it as an " open question " — a position 
that may be disputed, but for which more may be said than against 
it, but concerning which they are not able to decide. This is tanta- 
mount to saying that the gospel is an open question, and that they 

« Exod. xix. 6. ' ^ Acts i. 3, 6. 



ISRAEL AM) " CONVERSIONISM." 401 

really cannot say whether the kingdom of God will have subjects or 
not. There are others who believe that Israel will certainly be 
restored, but they clog it with a condition which in effect makes its 
fulfilment impossible, or eternally remote. They tell us that they will 
not be restored until the^^ are converted to Christianity ! 

By Christianity they mean the inanity preached from the " sacred 
desks " of the apostacy — the pulpit-gospels of the day ; " for," say 
they, " if they abide not in unbelief they shall be grafted into their 
own olive again." This is quite true ; but the fallacy consists in con- 
struing this to mean, that their restoration is predicated on their 
believing what the Gentiles teach. The Gentiles themselves are in 
unbelief. How, then, can they convert the Jews ? " Because of 
unbelief they were broken off, and thou Gentile standest hy faith. 
Be not high-minded, but fear : for if God spared not the natural 
branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee ;" for " thou also shalt 
be cut off if thou continue not in his goodness."" Both Jews and 
Gentiles are faithless in the gospel of the kingdom in the name of 
Jesus. The Jews believe one part of it, and the Gentiles another part 
of it, but even these several parts they adulterate with so many tradi- 
tions, that neither Jews nor Gentiles believe anything as they ought. 
Therefore, as He broke off Israel by the instrumentality of the Romans, 
so He is now about to break off the Gentiles by the judgments soon 
to be poured out upon them. 

The work of grafting Israel into their own olive belongs to God, 
who, as the scripture saith, " is able to graft them in again." No 
one, I presume, will dispute His ability. As I have shown elsewhere, 
He has assigned the work of restoration to the Lord Jesus, who will 
graft them in again upon a principle of faith. He will bring their 
unbehef to an end in a way peculiar to the emergency of the case. 
When the fulness of the Gentiles is come in, then Israel's blindness 
will be done away. 

The restoration of the Jews is a work of time, and will require 
between fifty and sixty years to accomplish. When Gogue comes to 
be lord of Europe, like Pharaoh of old, he will not permit Israel to 
remove themselves and their wealth bej^ond his reach. His dominion 
must, therefore, be broken before the north will obey the command to 
" give up," and the south to "keep not back; " and even then Israel 
must fight their way to Palestine as in the days of old. 

The truth is, there are two stages in the restoration of the Jews, 
the first is before the battle of Armageddon ; and the second, 
after it ; but both pre-millennial. God has said, " I will save the 
tents of Judah first.''' This is the first stage of restoration. Jesus 
has already been " a stone of stumbling and rock of offence " to 
Judah and his companions for 40 years, that is, from the day of 
Pentecost to the destruction of the temple, so that they need not 
to be subjected to a like process any more. But the word saith, 
" He shall be a stone of stumbling and rock of offence to hoth 
the houses of Israel ; "^ now it is well known that this has not 
been fulfilled in relation to the ten tribes. They did not inhabit 

« Rom. xi. 20-23. ^Isaiah viii. 14. 



402 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

Canaan at the time Jesus sojourned and ministered there. The 
gospel of the kingdom has never been preached to them in his 
name ; hence, they are only acquainted with him as they have 
heard of him by the report of Jesuits, and the priests of Gentile 
superstitions — a report which is incapable of making men responsible 
for not believing. 

It remains, then, after Judah's tents are saved, to make use of 
them as apostles to their brethren of the other tribes, to preach to 
them a word from Jerusalem,'* inviting them to come out from tlie 
nations, and to rendezvous in " the wilderness of the people," 
preparatory to a return to a land flowing with milk and honey, 
in which Judah is dwelling safely under the sceptre of the Seed 
promised to their fathers. Judah's submission to the Lord Jesus, 
as the result of seeing him, will give them no right to eternal life, 
or to the glory and honour of the kingdom. It just entitles them to 
the blessedness of living in the land under the government of Messiah 
and the saints. So with the Ten Tribes ; their faith in the word 
preached will entitle them to no more than a union into one kingdom 
and nation with Judah ; and a participation in the blessings of 
Shiloh's reign during their natural lives. If any of them attain to 
eternal life and glor}^, it will be predicated on some other premises 
than those which precede their restoration. 

There is, then, a partial and primary restoration of Jews before 
the manifestation, which is to serve as the nucleus, or basis, of 
future operations in the restoration of the rest of the tribes after he 
has appeared in the kingdom. The pre-adventual colonisation 
of Palestine will be oh purely political principles ; and the Jewish 
colonists will return in unbelief of the Messiahship of Jesus, and of 
the truth as it is in him. They will emigrate thither as agriculturists 
and traders, in the hope of ultimately establishing their common- 
wealth, but more immediately of getting rich in silver and gold by 
commerce with India, and in cattle and goods by their industry at 
home under the efficient protection of the British power. And this 
their expectation will not be deceived ; for, before Gogue invades their 
country, it is described by the prophet, as "a land of un walled 
villages, whose inhabitants are at rest, and dwell safely, all of them 
dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates ; and pos- 
sessed of silver and gold, cattle and goods, dwelling in the midst of 
the land."^ Now any person acquainted with the present insecure 
condition of Palestine under the Ottoman dominion must be satisfied 
from the testimony, that some other power friendly to Israel must 
then have become paramount over the land, which is able to guarantee 
protection to them, and to put the surrounding tribes in fear. This 
is all that is needed, namely, security for life and property, and 
Palestine would be as eligible for Jewish emigration as the United 
States have proved for the Gentiles. 

But to what part of the world shall we look for a power whose 
interests will make it willing as it is able to plant the ensign of civili- 

« Isaiah ii. 2. ^ E^ek. xxxviii. 11, 12, 13. 



BRITAm, THE JEWS AND THE HOLY LAND. 40^ 

zation upon the mountains of Israel ? The reader will, doubtless, 
anticipate my reply from what has gone before. I know not whether 
the men, who at present contrive the foreign policy of Britain, enter- 
tain the idea of assuming the sovereignty of the Holy Land, and of 
promoting its colonization by the Jews ; their present intentions, how- 
ever, are of no importance one way or the other ; because they will 
be compelled, by events soon to happen, to do what, under existing 
circumstances, heaven and earth combined could not move them to 
attempt. The present decisions of " statesmen " _ Eire destitute of 
stability. A shooting star in the political firmament is sufficient to 
disturb all the forces of their system ; and to stultify all the theories 
of their political astronomy. The finger of God has indicated a course 
to be pursued by Britain which cannot be evaded, and which her 
counsellors will not only be willing, but eager, to adopt when the crisis 
comes upon them. 

The decree has long since gone forth which calls upon the Lion of 
Tarshish to protect the Jews. Upwards of a thousand years before 
the British were a nation, the prophet addresses them as the power 
which at " evening-tide " should interest themselves in behalf of 
Israel. In view of this, " the time of the end," he says, " The nations 
shall rash like the rushing of many waters : but God shall rebuke 
them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of 
the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the 
whirlwind ; " or, as it is expressed by another, " and they became like 
the chaff of the summer threshing-floors ; and the wind carried them 
away, that no place was found for them : "" " Behold," says the 
former prophet, concerning Israel at this time, "at evening-tide 
trouble ; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of 
them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us "^ — referring, 
doubtless, to the overthrow and destruction of Gogue. Now, the 
invasion of their country by a spoiler at " evening-tide," who robs 
them, implies their previous return. This finished colonisation Isaiah 
styles, " a present unto the Lord of hosts of a people scattered and 
peeled ; " for, speaking of " the time of the end," he says, " In that 
time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts of a people 
scattered and peeled '•• ■•■* •••" to the place of the name of the Lord 
of Hosts, the Mount Zion."'' But, then, the question returns upon 
us, by whom is the present to be made ? The prophet answers this 
question in the first verse, saying, " Ho ! to the land shadowing with 
wings, which is beyond the rivers of Khush : that sendeth ambas- 
sadors by sea, and on vessels of papyrus upon the waters. Go ye 
swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people 
terrible from this and onward : a nation meted out and trodden down, 
whose land the rivers (invading armies^) have spoiled." Now, the 
geography of this passage points to the Lion-power of Tarshish as to 
" the land shadowing with wings." Taking Judea, where the predic- 
tion was delivered, as the place of departure, the word " heyond " 
points to the east ; that is, running a line from Judea across the 
Euphrates and Tigris, " the rivers of Khushistan," it passes into 

«Dan. ii. 35. '^Isaiah xvii. 13. c Isaiali xviii. 7. <^ Isaiah viii. 7. 



404 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

Hindostan, where "the Merchants of Tarshish, and its young lions," 
rule the land.--- 

But the British power is still further indicated by the insular 
position of its seat of government ; for the " sending of fleet messen- 
gers by the sea," implies that the shadowing power is an island-state. 
Ambassadors are sent from the residence of the Court, and if they 
proceed to their destination b}^ sea, the throne of the power must be 
located in an island. The text, therefore, points to the north and east, 
to England and Hindostan, as the land shadowing Israel with its wings. 
To Britain, then, the prophet calls as the protector of the Jewish 
nation in the evening-tide trouhle, and commands it to send its messen- 
gers in swift vessels because the crisis is urgent, and to plant Israel 
as " an ensign upon the mountains ; "" as it is written in another 
place, saying, " The Lord shall set an ensign for the nations, and shall 
assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed oi' 
Judah from the four corners of the earth."'^ 

When this is accomplished to the required extent it becomes a 
notable sign of the times. It will then be seen that the political 
Euphrates is evaporated to dryness, and that Israel is walking in the 
way of the kings of the east. In view of this, the prophet addresses 
mankind, saying, " All the inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on 
the earth, tremble, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains ; 
and when he bloweth a trumpet, shall hear." The ensign being 
planted on the mountains of Israel by Britain, the Lord will cause 
the Assyrian Autocrat to " blow a trumpet," summoning the hosts 
■of his nations to war ; for he has said, *' I will bring thee, Gogue, 
against my land." They will " ascend and come like a storm from 
the north parts, and be like a cloud to cover the land : "" but " they 
shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the 
beasts of the earth ; and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all 
the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them," for their carcasses 
will lie exposed for " seven months " upon the field.'^ Then shall " the 
present " be brought in full of all the tribes of Israel not previously 
assembled by " the land shadowing with wings." 

But from the subjugation of the Jews for a short time after they 
have been colonized, the protection of the shadowing-power would 
seem to have been inefficient. So it will, as far as the mountainous 
parts of the land are concerned ; but, then, it is testified by Daniel, 
that " Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon, 
shall escape out of the hand of the king of the north." These 
countries will be a place of refuge for those who fly from the face of 
the spoiler, as Turkey has recently been for the Hungarians, who 
have fled from the same power. The LioU-power of Tarshish being 
in military occupation of the countries that escape, is enabled to con- 
tinue their protection efficiently. Hence, the prophet addresses it, 
saying, *' Take counsel, execute judgment ; make thy shadows as the 

" Isa. xviii. 3. ^ Isa. xi. 12. « Ezek. xxxviii. 9, 16. '^ Ezek. xxxix. 14. 

■••• And the British rule the land " beyond the rivers of Kush," or Ethiopia, in 
Africa, that is, Egypt, the Soudan, and the far South beyond the Atbara and the 
Blue and White Nile. 



BRITAIN THE EDOM AND MOAB OF THE LATTER DA-JS. 405 

night in the midst of the noon-day ; hide the outcasts ; bewray not 
him that wandereth. Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab ; be 
thou a covert to them from the face of the Spoiler." The context 
shows that this has reference to a future time ; for, having shadowed 
them from the spoiler, who, during their coverture in Moab, has met 
with his overthrow at the hand of Michael, the great Prince of Israel, 
— the prophet goes on to announce the good news, saying, " The 
extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed 
out of the land." 

This cannot be said of any period of Jewish history since the 
prophecy was delivered ; nor can it be said of the land in its present 
state, for the extortioner and oppressor still keeps it in subjection. 
But what follows shows conclusively, that the time referred to is yet 
future ; for, as soon as the deliverance of the land is declared, and the 
spoiler is no more, the prophet directs the reader's attention to the 
setting up of the kingdom, as the next event to come to pass, saying 
in these words, " In mercy shall the throne he established : and He 
shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and 
seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness."^ But Moab's popula- 
tion is vanished, and the country a mere wilderness, whose solitude is 
only disturbed by the howl of beasts, or the occasional tramp of the 
Bedouins. For Moab, therefore, to respond to the prophetic exhorta- 
tion, a power must take possession of the country capable of out- 
stretching its wings for the defence of a people, " whose land the 
rivers have spoiled," and that power, I believe, is Britain's, the Moab 
of the latter days. 

As I have said elsewhere, the Lion-power will not interest itself 
in behalf of the subjects of God's kingdom, from pure generosity, 
piety towards God, or love of Israel ; but upon the principles which 
actuate all the governments of the world — upon those, namely, of the 
lust of dominion, self-preservation, and self-aggrandizement. God, 
who rules the world, and marks out the bounds of habitation for the 
nations, will make Britain a gainer by the transaction. He will 
bring her rulers to see the desirableness of Egypt, Ethiopia, and 
Seba, which they will be induced, by the force of circumstances, 
probably, to take possession of.'"-- They will, however, before the 
battle of Armageddon, be compelled to retreat from Egypt and 
Ethiopia ; for " the king of the north shall stretch forth his hand 
upon the land of Egypt, which shall not escape ; and the Libyans 
and Ethiopians shall be at his steps." Hence, these will become the 
battle-ground for a time, until the seat of war is removed to the 
mountains of Israel, where, by the Autocrat's discomfiture, the war is 
brought to an end between the image-giant of Assyria and the Lion 
of the north and east. 

The possession, or ascendancy of Britain in Egypt, Ethiopia, and 

Seba, will naturally lead to the colonization of Palestine by the Jews. 

Thus the proverb will be verified which saith, "The wicked shall be a 

ransom for the righteous, and the transgressor for the upright." 

« Isaiah xvi. 3-5 ; Jer. xxiii. 5 : xxxiii. 14-15. 

■•■ And so it has come to pass — 1882 and after. 



406 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

Tlioiigli generations of the Jews have been "stiff-necked and per- 
verse," yet their nation is a "holy nation," which other nations are 
not, inasmuch as Israel is the only nation God has separated to Him- 
self for a peculiar people. In view of what I have been presenting, 
Jehovah saith to them, " Fear not, Israel ; for I have redeemed thee : 
I have called thee by thy name : thou art mine. When thou passest 
through the waters, I will be with thee ; and through the rivers, they 
shall not overflow thee ; when thou walkest through the fire, thou 
shalt not be burned ; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For 
I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour ; I gave 
Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and 8eha for thee. Since thou 
wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have 
loved thee ; therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. 
Fear not ; for I am with thee : I will bring thy seed from the east, 
and gather thee from the west ; I will say to the north, Give up ; and 
to the south, Keep not back : bring my sons from far, and my 
daughters from the ends of the earth ; even every one that is called by 
my name : for I have created Israel for my glory, I have formed him ; 
yea, I have made him."^ 

Thus the Lord disposes of nations and countries as it pleases Him. 
To " the land shadowing with wings," which shall proclaim their 
return to the dust of their fathers, He will give Egypt, Ethiopia, and 
Seba as their ransom ; and enable them, through its power, " to lay 
their hands upon Edom and Moab ; " and to obtain the ascendancy over 
" the children of Ammon." Thus they will settle in these countries of 
the Red Sea ; to which they will be attracted by the riches to be acquired 
through their connection with the commerce of the east ; which will 
then resume its channel of the olden time, when Israel and the British, 
like Solomon's servants and the men of Tyre, will drive a thriving 
trade between the Indian and China seas, and the nations of the west. 

Having thus brought my exposition of the sure prophetic word 
down to the termination of " the time of the end," I shall conclude my 
interpretations by exhibiting the truth revealed concerning the things 
of the transition period during which the God of heaven is setting 
up His kingdom, and breaking in pieces and consuming all the king- 
doms of the world, and transferring their glory, honour, and dominion 
under the whole heaven to the saints of the Most High. These 
matters wiU be set forth in brief under the caption of 

THE SECOND EXODUS. 

When the Lord has ^'hroken to pieces together'' all the -parts oi 
Nebuchadnezzar's Image — that is, destroyed that power which bound 
them all together as one dominion — the work next to be accomplished 
in relation to them is to subdue the gold, the silver, the brass, the 
iron, and the clay— in other words, the powers represented by them — 
that they may become "like the chaff of the summer threshing- 
floors ;" so that, being carried away by the tempest of war, " no place 
may be found for them," and the subjugating power become as " a 
great mountain, and fill the whole earth." 

o Isaiah xliii. 1-7. 



THE SECOND EXODUS. 407 

But a question arises here which, must be answered, or our exposi- 
tion is at fault, and deficient of a very important link in the chain of 
testimony which connects the kingdom of God with the foundation of 
the world. It is, By what means are " the kingdoms of the world to 
become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ " after he has 
dissolved the imperial bond of union among them by the glorious 
victory of Armageddon ? Is it to be accomplished by sending mission- 
aries of the tribe of Judah to the nations, preaching to them salvation 
from hell by Jesus Christ, as missionaries are now doing among the 
heathen, and inviting them to submit to the spiritual authority of the 
Lord administered through men of like passions with themselves ? Or 
is it to be brought about by burning up the wicked, and leaving none 
but the righteous to inherit the earth ? Or are the existing orders of 
bishops, priests, ministers, and missionaries to be employed to bring 
the nations to the obedience of faith, that they may voluntarily 
surrender all political power into their hands, as the saints of the Most 
High God ? 

I answer unhesitatingly, that the conversion of the world to Christ's 
supremacy will be accomplished by no such fantastical schemes as are 
implied in these suppositions. The answer to the question is, that 
the nations loill he subdued to the sceptre of Shiloh hy the sioord, and 
that the tribes of Israel will he his soldiers in the war. Besides punishing 
them for their idolatry, and subsequent unbelief of the gospel of the 
kingdom preached to Judah in the name of Jesus, Israel has been also 
scattered among all nations, that they may be ready for the work 
assigned them in " the time of trouble,'" which intervenes between the 
battle of Armageddon and their final and complete restoration at the 
■end of forty years. Though the dominion of Gogue be broken, the 
kingdoms and states which acknowledged him as their imperial chief 
will not voluntarily surrender themselves to another lord, any more 
than the populations of the old Assyrian empire did when the power 
of Sennacherib was broken in one night. The effect of his overthrow 
was only to prepare them for subjection to a more civilized and power- 
ful ruler. In this case, the Lord used the Chaldeans for their 
subjugation : but in the coming strife He will use the tribes of Israel. 

The Lord Jesus Christ at his appearing in his kingdom finds 
Judah inhabiting the land. Not all the Jews, but a goodly number 
■of them. Having gained the victory of Armageddon, he convenes the 
elders of the people, which as their deliverer he has a right to do. 
Thus '' they look upon him whom they have pierced \''°- " and one 
shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thy hands ? Then he 
shall answer. Those with which I was wounded in the house of my 
friends."^ The effect of this information upon the people is to cause 
a national lamentation. They will then discover that He to whom 
they owe their deliverance from Gogue is Jesus of Nazareth, whom 
their fathers crucified. They will therefore " mourn for him, as one 
mourneth for his only son, and will be in bitterness for him, as one 
that is in bitterness for his first-born. In that day, there will be a 
great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in 

a Zech. xii. 10. ^ Zecli. xiii. 6. 



408 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

the valley of Megiddo."^ Two-thirds of the people will have been 
cut off by the war against Gogue, and the third which sur^^ives will 
h^ave passed through a fiery ordeal. It will have been a refining 
process in which they will have been refined like silver, and tried as 
gold is tried. Thus prepared, " a spirit of grace and of supplications " 
will be poured upon them, and they will call on the name of the 
Lord, and he will hear them,"^ and open for them a fountain for sin 
and for uncleanness.* He will say, "It is my people : and they shall 
say. The Lord (even Jesus) is my God."'^ Thus will Judah be grafted 
again into their own olive, and brought to acknowledge Jesus 
as King of the Jews, and to confess that " he is Lord, to the glory of 
God the Father." 

The New Covenant being made with the house of Judah, the 
kingdom is established. Not, however, to its full extent. It is but 
the kingdom in its small beginning, as when David reigned in 
Hebron over Judah only. The Lord Jesus, as King of Judah, will 
have to bring the ten tribes and the nations general^ to acknowledge 
him as King of Israel and Lord of the whole earth. What would 
the reader think of the little kingdom of Greece undertaking to sub- 
due the whole world ? Yet when the Lord appears in his little king- 
dom of Judea, he will undertake to deliver every Israelite in bondage, 
establish David's kingdom to its full extent, overturn all kingdoms 
and dominions among the Gentiles, abolish all their superstitions, 
enlighten them in the truth, and bring them to submit to him 
joyfully as their lawgiver, high priest, and king. He will begin 
this mighty enterprise with Judah ; for " he hath made them as 
his goodly horse in the battle. And they shall be as mighty men, 
which tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the 
battle : and they shall fight, hecause the Lord is icitli them, and 
the riders on horses shall be confounded."^ " And the governors of 
Judah shall saj* in their heart. The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall 
be my strength in the Lord of hosts their God. In that day," saith 
the Lord, " I will make the governors of Judah like a hearth of 
fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf ; and the}^ 
shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on 
the left."/ 

Such is the illustration of their prowess. The nations will be as 
wood, or as sheaves, subjected to the action of fire. They may resist,, 
but they are certain to be subdued without further power of resistance. 
" They shall tread down the wicked ; for they shall be ashes under the 
soles of their feet."^ Their conquests will begin with the countries 
contiguous to Judea. For when the Assyrian shall invade their land, 
the Judge of Israel having caused him to faU, " Judah shall 
waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod 
in the entrances thereof : thus shall he " that is to be ruler in 
Israel " deliver them from the Assyrian when he cometh into their 
land, and when he treadeth within their borders. And the remnant 
of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord."'' 

o Zech. xii. 10-14 ; Rev. i. 7. ^ Zecli. xiii. 9 : <" ver. 1 : 'i ver 9. '^ Zech. x.. 3-5. 
/ Zech. xii. 6. 'J Mai. iv; 3. '' Mic. iv. 1-7. 



judah's prowess. 409 

Having thus conquered the land which God promised to Abraham 
and his seed for an everlasting possession, and made Judah as a bent 
bow in the hand of the king, the next thing is for the Lord to fill it 
with Ephraim as his arrow-headed weapon of war.^ In other 
words, " the Lord will seek to destroy all the nations that came 
against Jerusalem "^ under the banner of Gogue ; and to accomplish 
this so as at the same time to bring back the ten tribes to the land of 
Canaan, he will cause Judah to make war upon Greece, and blow 
the trumpet to war against the ten kingdoms of the habitable, and the 
populations of the west among whom " the remnant of Jacob " is 
dispersed. These scattered tribes will have been " hissed for " or 
invited to leave the lands of their oppressors, and to make common 
cause with Judah. They will respond to the invitation ; and as 
"the arrow of the Lord they will go forth as lightning; and they 
shall devour and subdue."'' " And they shall be like a mighty man, 
and their heart shall rejoice as through wine. And I will bring them, 
saith the Lord, again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them 
out of Assyria ; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and 
Lebanon ; and Ephraim shall pass through the sea with affliction and 
shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall 
dry up : and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down ; and the 
sceptre of Egypt shall depart away."'^ 

Let us, then, attend more particularly now to the relation subsist- 
ing between the king of Israel and his ten tribes, designated as 
" Ephraim,'' and " the remnant of Jacob " in the word. Addressing 
them, the Lord says by the prophet, " Thou art my battle-axe and 
weapons of war ; for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with 
thee will I destroy kingdoms ; with thee will I break in pieces captains 
and rulers,"* This has never been the case since the prophecy was 
delivered ; it remains, therefore, to be fulfilled. With Judah as his 
goodly war horse and well-strung bow, filled with the Ephraim- 
arrow, and wielding the Israel-battle-axe, " The Lord will go forth 
with the whirlwinds of the south." " The remnant of Jacob will " 
then " be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion 
among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of 
sheep : who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in 
pieces, and none can deliver." By such a weapon as this, the Lord 
will " execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as 
they have not heard."/. 

This belligerent state of things between the King of Israel and 
the nations of Gogue's dominion, styled " the goats,'" will continue for 
forty years.-'- The subjugation will be gradual, as Israel is made to 
" go through " from kingdom to kingdom. " Feed thy people," saith 

aZech. ix. 12-16. ^'Zech. xii. 9. eZecli. ix. 12-16. ^ Zech. x. 7-11 ; 
Isaiah xi. 15, 16. ^ Jer. li. 20-23. / Mic. v. 8, 15. 

*■ Mic. vii. 15 is taken to indicate this period. But the prophet does not say, 
" According to the number of the days," but simply " As in the days." The 
allusion is to the characteristic wonders of those days, rather than to their duration. 
Compare the parallel expressions in the following scriptures : — Isa. ix. 4 : xi. 16 : 
li. 9 ; Hos. ii. 15 : ix. 9 ; Zech. xiv. 3. 



410 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

the prophet, " with thy rod, the flock of thy heritage, which dwell 
solitarily in the wood ; let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the 
days of old." In answer to this petition, the Lord replies, ''According 
to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I show unto 
him (Israel) marvellous things." This is forty years ; for so long were 
the}^ in passing from Egypt to Canaau, which was the type of their 
coming out from among the nations to the Holy Land under the 
generalship of Elijah, the Lord's harbinger, to the Ten Tribes. The 
''marvellous things" to be shown them will not be performed in 
private, but will be as notorious as the plagues of Egypt ; f or " the 
nations shall see and be confounded at all their might : they shall lay 
their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. They shall 
lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like 
worms of the earth ; they shall be afraid of the Lord the God of Israel, 
and shall fear because of thee."'' 

The more immediate consequence of these exterminating wars will 
be the cessation of all further resistance in the north, which will have 
been thus compelled to ''give up " the Israelites among them, and to 
let them go and serve in " the wilderness of the people." They will 
not march directly into the Holy Land, because the generation of 
Israelites who leave the north will l3e no more fit for immediate settle- 
ment there than their fathers were who left Egypt under Moses. They 
would be as rebellious under the government of Shiloh as that genera- 
tion whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, and concerning whom 
" Jehovah sware in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest." 
They must, therefore, be subjected to discipline, and trained up under 
the divine admonition. But, notwithstanding all the " marvellous 
things " they will have witnessed, they will prove themselves true to 
the character of their fathers, who were stiff-necked and perverse, and 
resistant always of the Spirit of God ; so that they will not be per- 
mitted to enter into the land of Israel. Their children, however, 
will come thither from " the land of the enemy," and attain to their 
own border.^ 

The reader will, doubtless, desire to know upon what ground I 
affirm these things. This is as it ought to be ; for he should set his 
face like a flint, and refuse credence to anything and everything which 
is not sustained by " the testimony of God." Turn, then, to the pro- 
phet Ezekiel, where it is thus written, " As I live, saith the Lord 
God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, 
and with fury poured out, will I rule over you : and I wiU bring you 
out from the people, and will gather yoii out of the countries wherein 
ye are scattered with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, 
and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness 
of the people, and there will I plead loith you face to face ; like as I 
pleaded with your fathers in the loilderness of the land of Egypt, so 
loill I plead with you, saith the Lord God. And I will cause you to 
pass under the rod ; and will bring you into a delivering of the 
covenant : and I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them 
that transgress against me : I will bring them forth out of the 

« Mic. vii. 14-17. ^ Jev. xxxi. 15-17. 



PURGING OUT THE REBELS. 411 

country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of 
Israel : and ye shall know that I am the Lord."'^ 

While they are in this wilderness it is, that the Lord Jesus 
becomes " a stone of stumbling and rock of offence to the house of 
Israel," as he had before been to Judah ; and the consequence is, that 
" the rebels among them " are excluded from the blessings of Shiloh's 
government, and eternal life and glory in the then world to come. 
Nothing can be plainer than Ezekiel's testimony. If the reader know 
Jiow the Lord pleaded with Israel face to face in the wilderness by the 
hand of Moses, he will well understand the ordeal that yet awaits the 
tribes to qualify them for admission into the Holy Land. The Lord's 
power and the angel were with them in the wilderness of Arabia, but 
they saw not his person ; so, I judge, will the Lord Jesus and some of 
the saints be with Israel in their Second Exodus, seen perhaps by their 
leaders, as the Elohim were by Moses, Aaron, the elders, and by 
•Joshua ; but not visible to the multitude of the people, who must 
walk by faith and not by sight ; for, though God is able to graft them 
in again. He can only do it upon a principle of faith ; for the 
condition of their restoration laid down in His word is, " If they abide 
not in unhelief, they shall be grafted in again." 

It would seem from the testimony of Malachi, who prophesied 
concerning the ten tribes, that while they are in the wilderness of the 
people they will be disciplined by the law of Moses as their national 
code, while things concerning Jesus will be propounded to them as 
matter of faith ; for it is testified by Hosea that they shall be 
gathered, and " shall sorrow a little for the burden of the King of 
princes."'' The person with whom they will have more immediately to 
do in their Second Exodus is Elijah. There would seem to be a 
fitness in this. In the days of their fathers, when they forsook the 
Lord and abolished the law of Moses, Elijah was the person whose 
ministerial life was occupied in endeavouring to " restore all things." 
Though he did much to vindicate the name and law of Jehovah, he 
was taken away in the midst of his labours. For what purpose ? 
That he might at a future period resume his work and perfect it by 
restoring all things among the ten tribes according to the law of 
Moses, preparatory to their being planted in their land under a new 
covenant to be made with them there.'' 

But it may be objected, that Elijah has come already, and that 
John the Baptist was he.'^ True, in a certain sense, he was. John 
was Elijah to the house of Judah in the sense of his having come 
*' in the spirit and power of Elijah."'' But John was not the Elijah 
who talked with Mcses on the Mount of Transfiguration. The latter 
is Elijah to the house of Israel. The scribes taught that Elijah must 
precede ChriGt ; which Jesus approved, saying, " Elijah truly shall first 
come, and restore all things.'' He said this after John was put to 
death. John did not restore all things ; but Elijah will, and that too 
before the Lord Jesus makes himself known to the ten tribes, whom 
he will meet in Egypt. 

« Ezek. XX. 30-36. ^ Hos. viii. 10. « Mai. iv. 4-G ; Jer. xxxi. 31. 
'^ Luke i. 17. " Luke i. 17. 



412 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

The period of Israel's probation drawing to a close, they will have 
advanced as far as Egypt on their return to Canaan, as it is written, 
" They shall return to Egypt."" This is necessary, for it is written 
also in more senses than one, "Out- of Egypt have I called my son.'* 
As they are to be gathered from the west, north, and east, they will 
have gone through the countries by a circuitous route to Egypt. 
They are to be gathered from Assyria, or the countries of Gogue's 
dominion ; but I have not yet discovered in the word the line of 
march they are to follow in arriving at Egypt. But that they are to 
be assembled there is certain ; for it is written, " I will bring them 
again also out of the land of Egypt." This was spoken some two 
hundred years after the overthrow of Samaria ; and it is indisputable 
that neither Israel nor Judah have been again brought out of Egypt 
to inhabit their land : the exodus from Egypt is therefore still in the 
future. 

But in coming out of Egypt they will have to cross both the 
Nile and the Red Sea ; and although their march thither will have 
been one of conquest, it will not have been unattended with defeat^ 
because of their own rebelliousness. The hearts of their enemies will 
be hardened to their own destruction to the last conflict. The south 
will still be disposed to " keep hack " Israel from their country. 
Therefore, in leaving Egypt, " Ephraim shall pass through the sea 
with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps 
of the river shall dry up : and the pride of Assyria shall be brought 
down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away."^ The couibined 
forces of Egypt and Assyria shall be broken as the hosts of Pharaoh^ 
and the horse and his rider be drowned in the depths of the sea. 
For " the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea j 
and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and 
shall smite it in the seven streams, and make (Israel) go over dry 
shod . . . like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out 
of the land of Egypt."'' 

They will now sing the song of Moses, and the song of the Lamb, 
who will have given them such a mighty deliverance from all their 
enemies. Being now " the ransomed of the Lord, they shall return, 
and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads." 
The prophet " like unto Moses," mightier than Joshua, and " greater 
than Solomon," will conduct them into the Holy Land, and, having 
delivered to them the New Covenant, will " settle them after their old 
estates." Having " wrought with them for his own name's sake,'^ 
and by them a« his " battle-axe and weapons of war," subdued the- 
nations, and brought them to his holy mountain, he will " accept 
them there," and " there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in 
the land," as one nation and one kingdom under Shiloh " serve the 
Lord God."^ 

Thus the little kingdom of Judea will become " a great moun- 
tain," or empire, " filling the whole earth." The " Economy of the- 
Fulness of Times " will now have fairly commenced, and the Day of 

«Hos. viii. 13. tZecIi. x. 10, 11. « Isaiah xi. 15, 16. 
f^Ezek. xxxvii. 21, 28 : xx. 40; xxxiv. 22, 31. 



THE GLORY OF THE RESTORATION. 413 

Christ in all the glory of the Sun of Righteousness have opened in 
all its blessedness upon the nations of the earth. The gospel 
preached to Abraham, saying, " In thee shall all the families of the 
earth be blessed," will be a reality. The Lord, with Judah as his 
bended bow and Israel for his arrow, having subdued the nations, 
and " bound their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of 
iron " as his conquests progressed, will have transferred their much- 
abused power to his saints,'^ who shall rule them with a rod of iron 
which cannot be broken. 

Having received his law,^ and experienced the justice of its 
administration, " all nations will call him blessed," and " daily will 
he be praised." An universal jubilee will celebrate the admiration 
of mankind, and their devotion to the King of all the earth. The 
world will no more resound with wars' alarms for a thousand years ; 
and among the highest there will be glory to God, on the earth there 
will be peace, and good-will among men.'' The mission of the Lord's 
Christ will have been gloriously fulfilled. He will have raised up the 
tribes of Jacob, restored the preserved of Israel, and been the salva- 
tion of Jehovah to the end of the earth.'^ In his days there will be 
abundance of peace ; for the nations will beat their swords into plough- 
shares, and their spears into scythes, and practise war no more. " At 
that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord ; and all 
the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the Lord, to Jeru- 
salem " as the metropolis of the world : " neither shall they loalk any 
more after the imagination of their evil heart.^^^ The things they now 
delight in will then be an abomination to them ; for *' the Gentiles 
shall come unto the Lord from the ends of the earth, and shall say, 
Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things in lohich 
there is no profit^f 

When enlightened by the Lord this will be their judgment of 
the " nations and denominations," Pagan, Mohammedan, Papal, and 
Protestant, which now as a covering vail spread over all nations,^ darken 
their understandings, and alienate them from the life of God. But 
when the King of Israel and his Saints shall rule the world, all 
these superstitions will be for ever abolished, and mankind will be 
of one faith and practice. They will speak one religious language, and 
serve Jehovah with unanimity ; for, says He, " Then will I turn to the 

Eeople a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the 
lOrd with one consent."'' This must, indeed, be the Lord's doing, for 
who among men has the wisdom, knowledge, and power to bring the 
nations to speak intelligibly on religious subjects, and to be of one 
religion ? The sword only can prepare the way for this. Mankind 
must be made to *' lick the dust like a serpent," before they will 
consent to change their creeds for eternal truth. Judgment will 
bring them to reason, and they will say at length, " Come, let us 
go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of 
Jacob ; and He will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his 
paths : for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the 

o Rev. ii. 26, 27. ^ Isaiah xlii. 4. " Luke ii. 14. ^ Isaiah :^dix. 6. 
« Jer. iii. 17. / Jer. xvi. 19. 9 Isaiah xxv. 7. '' Zeph. iii. 9. 



414 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

Lord from Jerusalem."" Under sucK teaching as this the work will 
be accomplished. 

As to Israel, the Lord will have gotten them praise and fame in 
every land where they have been put to shame ; and have made them 
a name and a praise among all the people of the earth.'' " All nations 
shall call them blessed, for they shall be a delightsome land, saith the 
Lord of hosts."" Instead of being a bye-word and a reproach, as at 
this day, the Gentiles will glory in their patronage ; for " in those 
days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all 
languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him 
that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you ; for we have heard that 
God is with yoii.'^'^ Yes, the kingdom and throne of David will then 
be in their midst again, and Christ the Lord God, and Holy One 
of Israel, sitting upon it in power and great glory. The gospel of the 
kingdom will be no longer a matter of hope, but a reality ; and 
those who have believed it, and submitted cheerfully and lovingly 
to the law of faith in the obedience it req aires, and have perfected 
their faith by works meet for repentance, will be shiniug " as the 
brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever and 
ever."'' This is the Hope of Israel which is set before men in the 
Gospel, and for which Paul was bound with a chain. It is a very 
different one to that exhibited in pulpit-theology ; 3^et it is that which 
must be embraced as the soul's anchorage, if a man would be saved, 
and inherit the Kingdom of God. 

Such will be the order of things for a thousand years. But, 
though truth and righteousness will have gained the ascendancy and 
have prevailed for so long a period, sin will still exist in the flesh, and 
in some instances reveal itself in overt acts of disobedience. This is 
implied by the sayings : " The sinner shall die accursed ; "-^ and 
" Whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jeru- 
salem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, even upon them shall be 
no rain."» There will be no occasion to march an army into a country 
to put down rebellion ; it will be quite effectual to bring it back to 
its allegiance to withhold from it the fruits of the earth. This s^^irit 
of insubordination will, however, smoulder among the nations until 
at the end of the thousand years the " enmity " against the Woman's 
Seed burst forth again into a flame. If the 'apostle felt the workings 
of " the law of sin " within him, though obedient to " the law of the 
spirit of life ; " need we wonder that the same " law of nature " 
should gather force in the hearts of nations subdued by fire and 
sword to the sovereignty of Israel's King. Man, unrenewed man, is 
essentially ungrateful and rebellious. The whole history of his race 
attests it. A. thousand years of peace and blessedness will fail to 
bind him, by the bonds of love and a willing fealty, to the glorious 
and benevolent, yet just and powerful, emancipator and enlightener 
of the world. 

Some new demon, who would rather reign as Satan than serve in 
heaven, will arise among the nations, and unfurl the old satanic 

« Tsa. ii. 3. ^ Zeph. iii. 19, 20. « Mai. iii. 12. ^' Zech. viii. 23. « Dan. xii. 3. 
/Isa. Ixv. 20. i7'Zech. xiv. 16-19. 



THE POST-MILLENNIAL REVOLUTION". 415 

standard of the Dragon empire, which will be known to the genera- 
tion of that remote future as the past existence of the Assyrian, Persian, 
Macedonian, and Roman empires are known to us ; that is, historically. 
A giant will this rebel be in presumption and crime, and surpassing 
in hardihood the pre-millennial Autocrat, whom Michael bound with 
a great chain and cast into the abyss. But what will not a man 
adventure inspired with the pride of life ! Enchanted thus, he 
becomes the Adversary (Satan) of the King of Glory ; and goes forth 
to the remotest nations, to Gogue's Magogian people, and falsely 
accuses his administration, by which means he succeeds in detacliing 
them from their allegiance, and in deceiving them into a vain attempt 
to recover their ancient dominion." 

The King, instead of nipping the insurrection in the bud, 
permits the Adversary and Seducer (the Satan and the Devil) to 
mature his plans, marshal his hosts, and lead them on to an 
invasion of the land of Israel. The King permits him to come up 
on " the breadth of the land," and to " compass the camp of the 
saints about, and the beloved city." Having enclosed the Governor 
of the world and his ancients in the metropolis, and so hemmed 
them in as to prevent all escape, with no army in the rear to raise the 
siege, the sceptre of universal dominion would seem once more to 
be within the grasp of the Head of the old Serpent empire. Like 
our contemporaries, professing to believe the past, but denying 
that its scenes will ever be repeated, he remembers the overthrow 
of the former Gogue, as the Autocrat of Russia now remembers 
that of Sennacherib in the days of Hezekiah, but believes not in the 
repetition of so terrible a destruction. He will know, doubtless, and 
who after that the knowledge of the Lord shall have covered the earth 
for a thousand years will not know, that " he must reign till he have 
put all his enemies under his feet ? " but he will no more believe that 
it will be so, than the Old Serpent, the founder of his dominion, 
believed that God would subject Adam to death in the day of his 
transgression though he had declared it. He will persuade the nations 
that the King of Israel shall not reign for ever, and that the overthrow 
of his government is possible. 

Thus deceived, we find them enrolled under Satan, or the Adver- 
sary, and " encompassing the camp of the saints, and the beloved 
city," full of savage exultation at the expected destruction of the best 
of kings. But fallacious will be the hopes of the rebel multitude, and 
dreadful the vengeance to burst upon them. The trembling earth 
and the blackening heavens warn them of a coming tempest. The 
dark vapours and thick clouds of the sky, curling in dense and 
lowering masses, suddenly hiss forth the forked lightning, and the 
heaven is rent by the deafening roar of the voice of God. Hail and 
fire, mingled with hail, pour down upon them, and they are destroyed 
from the face of the land. Thus God will deliver His King ; for " fire 
shall come down from God out of heaven, and devour them." 

Thus, though corruption of the flesh, nationally expressed, was 
restrained by the overthrow of Gogue, the Dragon-chief, at the pre- 

« Rev. XX. 7-10. 



416 THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD. 

millennial advent of tke King of Israel, it is finally subdued only 
when the head of the Serpent-power is crashed at the end of the 
thousand years. After this victory, another enemy remains to be 
destroyed to perfect the work of the Son of Man. Death is the last 
enemy. The power of death is the corruption of the flesh, which is 
the consequence of sin. But, the wicked all being destroyed by fire, 
there remain upon the earth only the faithful and true, who are 
rewarded for their fidelity with the inheritance of the ages. The 
"law of sin," or law of their flesh, is abolished in the change they 
undergo from corruption to incorruptibility and life. This is the 
abolishing of death from the earth, so that its inhabitants can die no 
more. This being brought to pass, the saying will be fulfilled, and 
the work accomplished, that " the Son of God was manifested that 
he might destroy the works of the Devil ; " and " him that hath the 
power of death, that is the Devil." 

Such is " the end, when the Son shall deliver up the Kingdom to 
the Father that God may be all and in all."'' The separation 
between God and Man began with the transgression of the first 
Adam ; it continues till the end of the 7,000 years, when sin and death 
are utterly eradicated, and harmony again established in this orb of 
His glorious universe. Earth will have been delivered from moral 
and physical evil by His power administered and displayed through 
the Lord Jesus Christ, who, though " subjected to the Father," will 
have the pre-eminence over all " his brethren " through the endless 
duration of ages. The last resurrection, which is implied in the 
development of " the end,"^ will bring up from the dust the sleeping 
dead of the previous thousand years. Those who are accounted 
worthy of eternal life will receive it, and be added to the saints of the 
" first resurrection." 

Thus a population will have been provided for the earth, which, 
instead of being destroyed, will be renovated, and all things belong- 
ing to it made new/ The earth and its inhabitants will be incorrup- 
tible, undefiled, and unfading. God, according to His word, will 
have made " a full end of all nations," except that of Israel ; which 
will be the sole occupant of the globe, and every Israelite, " an Israelite 
indeed," " equal to the Elohim," and crowned with glory and honour 
throughout all ages. During the thousand years their nation will 
consist of three classes, Christ and the saints, righteous Israelites in 
the flesh, and those who " die accursed," but when perfection comes, 
there will be but one class, and all will be immortal. The purpose of 
God, in the formation of the earth, will be accomplished ; and " the 
headstone of the creation will be brought forth with shoutings, 
crying, Grace, grace unto it." 

a] Cor. XV. 24-28 : Rev. xxi. 3. ^Rev. xx. 6. « Rev, xxi. 5. 



INDEX. 



Aaron priesthood of, 284 

Abel, the faith of, 105 ; type of Jesus 
Christ, 107 

Abomination of desolation, 360 

Abraham, the heir of the world, 173, 218 ; 
birthplace, 207 ; faith counted for right- 
eousness, 209 ; as wanderer in Canaan, 
208 ; " thy seed" explained, 219 ; emi- 
gration with Lot, 207 ; to be raised from 
the dead, 211 ; seed of, 174, 206 ; ori- 
gin, 206 ; laith, 209 ; summary of 
faith. 235 ; allegory, '/28 ; last days of, 
238 

Abrahamic covenant, priority of, 214 

Adam, sentence upon, 114 ; transgression 
and consequences of, 62, 76 ; faith of, 
146 ; in relation to immortality, 66 ; 
"Adam to Moses," 84; the first and 
second, 120 

Advent, thief-like, 351 

Adversary, the, 92 

" Aion of the aions," 193 

Alexander the Great, a notable Horn, 356 

Alexandrine dominion of Tarshish, 398 

Alien : marriage with, 108 

" All things new," 155 

Allegory, the, Gal. iv. 228 ; of Gogue, 393 

America and the French Revolution, 324 

Ancient of Days, 305, 308 

Angels, 8 ; as ministering spirits, 246 ; 
Jacob wrestles with, 248 

Anglo-American developments, 324 

Antediluvian Apostasy, 107 

Antiochus Epiphanes, 365, 371 ; the 
Great, 364 

Apocalyptical Beast, 319; Earthquake, 338 

Apostacy in Galatia : Judaisers, 214 

Apostles, the ; the only ambassadors of 
Christ, 142 ; Qualifications of, 191 

Apostolic church, 88 ; succession, 191 

Arbitration impossible, 101 

Armageddon, 94, 322, 340, 352, 370, 377, 
397, 401, 405 ; after the war, 407 

Artaxerxes' commandment to build the 
Temple, 359 

Assyrian Lion, 299 ; gives place to Baby- 
lonian, 300 

Assyro-Macedonia, 369 



Atheism defined, 105 

Austria, as Gog of Magog, 393 ; and Ger- 
many, extinction of them, 394 

Austrian Empire, destruction of, 399 

Autocrat of Eussia, king of the North, 
379 ; and Europe, 381^ 



Baby-sprinkling, 189 

Babylon as the capital of Assyria, 299 

Bapti.sm and faith, 48, 123 ; into Christ 
necessary for salvation, 189 ; of Corne- 
lius, 189; of Israel, 265; into Moses, 266 

Bartholomew, St., Massacre, 315 

Bazaars, the Churches, 371, 374 

Bear of Daniel's Visions, 299, 301, 397 

Beast, time of the, 327 ; fourth, 299, 304, 
355, 356, 397 ; first, second, and third, 
299 ; the, 353 ; Apocalyptical, 319 

Beasts, the, and their image of the Apoca- 
lypse, 319, 335 ; tim-s of, 327 

" Before the World began," 194 

Belief and obedience, 68 

Bible against Christendom, 87 

Birth, the new, 122 

Bishops Universal of Rome, 372 

Blessedness of the nations, 413 

Body, natural, 29 ; spiritual, 29, 37 ; 
brightness of spiritual, 138 ; One, 49, 
127, 144 

Bondage, house of, Egypt, 264 

Bones, Jacob's and Joseph's care of their, 
252 

Boniface IIL, 372 

Boundaries of the Land, 21-5 

Bread and wine, 270 

Bride, the, 46, 143 

Britain, not one of the ten kingdoms, 297 ; 
as the Protector of the Jews, 402 

British power, identified as Sheba, Dedan, 
and Tarshish and her young lions, 394 ; 
in the South as Edom and Moab, 405 ; 
in Egypt, 405 ; and Ethiopia and Seba, 
406 ; i-epresented by the Leopard and 
the Unicorn, 303 

Broad way, 323 

Builder of all, God, 152 

Bush on fire, 262 



418 



INDEX. 



Cain, " of the wicked one," 88 ; faithless, 
104 ; rejected, 105 

Cainites, 107 

Call of the Gentiles, 242 

Canaan, promised to Abraham and Christ, 
208 

Carnal mind, 79 ; sin in the flesh, 83 

Charlemagne crowned, 329 ; and the Pope, 
373 

Cherubim of Ezekiel and Jk)hn, 135 ; faces 
of, 136 ; in Eden, 139 ; Mosaic, 132, 134 

Chittim, ships of, 366 

Christ, putting on, 47 ; church espoused 
to, 49 ; mistakes of Jew nnd Gentile 
concerning, 176; the " seed " of Abra- 
ham, 208, 239; "in Christ," 219; 
thief-like advent of, 351 ; sacrifice of, 

" 360 ; as King of Israel, 413 

Chronology, difficulty solved, 233 ; of the 
age before the law, 259 

Church, apostolic, 88, 144 ; of the present 
day, 127 ; awful condition of, 126 ; 
mother, 94 

Circumcision, token of the covenant, 223 ; 
of the heart, 226 ; ordained after the 
promise, 225; "without hands," 227; 
and baby-sprinkling, 228 

Citv, the Holy (Rev. xi.), 311 ; Freedom 
o"f, 312 

Cleansing of the sanctuary, 377 

Clergy, and laity, 129, 143 ; unhappy 
position of, 196 

Coats of skins, 145 

"Come out !" 132 

Coming end, events of, 379 

Commonwealth of Israel, 119, 135 ; 
Hebrew, 193, 229 

Condemnation of sin in the flesh, 145 

Conscience, defined, good and evil, 77 

Constantiiie, as man-child of sin, 24 ; 
established in Rome a.d. 313, 92 ; 
built New Rome a.d. 334, afterwards 
called Constantinople, 93 

Constantinople fell into hands of Turks, 
337 

Cons tantinopoli tan Catholic power, 370 

Conversion by Coercion, 221 

Cornelius, and what he had to do, 186 ; 
lessons from the case of, 186 ; Peter at 
the house of, 187 ; baptism of, 189 

Covenant, typical confirmation of, 210 ; 
the New : Jesus the Mediator, 217 ; the 
token of, 223 ; the, 262 ; confirmed to 
Jacob, 248 ; at Sinai, 272 ; New Cove- 
nant delivered to Judah, 408 ; and 
Israel, 411 

Creation, the earth before the, 9 ; of the 
six days, 11 ; New, 155 ; the Fatheh 
in relation to, 168 

Creeds and the Bible, 6 



Cyrus' proclamation to rebuild Temple, 358 
Czar in the time of the end, 371 



Daily sacrifices suppressed, 360 

Daniel's vision of the East, 355 ; his last 
vision, 361 ; paraphrase ch. xi., 362 ; 
King of the North, and Gog the same. 
387 

David, throne of, Jesus heir to, 177, 276 ; 
Covenant with, 276; " botli dead and 
buried," 277 ; kingdom of now non- 
existent, 277 ; Kingdom of also God's 
Kingdom, 277 

Day, of Adam's transgression, 60 ; of 
Vengeance, 378 ; Sabbath and Lord's, 
11, 20 ; Constantino and Sabbath, 20, 
24 ; last, 253 ; seventh, of one thou- 
sand years, 413 

Days, three and a half, 324 ; twelve hun- 
dred and ninety. 360 ; of Judgment, 
11 ; Ancient of, 303, 308 

Death, second, 119 

Death-bed and gaol repentance, 289 

Deatli-state of tbe witnesses, 325 

Dedan, the British power, 395 

Demons, the Frog, 343 

Dens of thieves, 375 

Destiny, Man cannot define his, 2 

Devil, fatherhood of, 85 ; wiles of the 88 ; 
works of the, 90 ; final destruction of 
the, 416 ; and Satan, 88 

Disease and Satan, 90 

Dominion, Man's, 57 

Dragon, power, phases of, 93 ; of the 
latter days, 93 ; the, 95 ; great, 91 ; 
great red, 93 ; and the Beast, 93 ; Greco- 
Roman, 304, 336, 339, 355 ; throne of, 
342 

Dragonnades, the, 317 

E 

Earth before the Creafion, 8 

" Earth" helps the Woman, 310 

Eastern Question before Christ, 355 

Ecclesiastical Police, 131 

Eden, 50 ; marriage in, 45 ; Garden of, 

52 ; cherubim in, 139 
Edom and Moab, 394 ; Edom, Moab, and 

Amnion escape the King of the North, 

405 
Egypt, "house of bondage," 264 ; typo of 

Rome, 323 ; with Ethiopia, and Seba in 

the possession of Britain, 405 ; and the 

Exodus, 410 ; and Assyria, 220 
Egvpt and Syria wrested from the Porte, 

337 
Election, Jacob, 240 ; the elpct, 241 
>:iijali's Mission, 39, 411 
Empire, Western, Restoration of, 328 



INDEX. 



419 



Elohira, Dissertation on tlie, 164 ; in 

relation to angels and men, 166 ; and 

the Father, 166 ; and creation, 167 ; 

the liuacli Elohim, 167 
End, the, 399 ; 416 
England, and the Jews, 394, 402 ; and 

the second vial, 335 ; and her work, 

382 ; conquests (enumerated) in the 

time of the end, 397 ; the adversary of 

Russia, 393 ; the protector of the 

Jews, 402 
England and Russia lead on the World to 

Armageddon, 341, 382 
Enoch, 39, 108 

Ephraim, and remnant of Jacob, 409 
Esau, hated, 243 ; and Jacob, birth of, 

240 ; his wailing, 244 ; profane persons 

like, 244 
Eternal Life, 161, 287 
Ethiopians and Libyans, 384 ; and Seba 

and Britain, 406 
Euphrates, drying up of the, 338 
Europe under the Autocrat, 381 
Eve, derived from Adam, 44 ; as a type of 

the church, 46 ; beguiled, 74 
Evening Morning Period, 378 
Evening-tide, 403 
Everlasting, dominion, 157 ; inheritance, 

208 
Exodus, Israel's, 265, 378 ; before the, 

260 ; a type, 260, 410 ; Israel's second, 

399, 407, 412 
Ezekiel, cherubim of, 135 ; Temple of, 

285 ; 430 years of, 368 ; paraphrase of 

ch. xxxviii., 393 

F 

Eables of the heathen, 133 

Faces of the cherubim, 136 

Faith, and baptism, 48 ; the law of, 121 ; 
scripturally defined, 147; how it comes, 
147 ; Abraham's counted for righteous- 
ness, 209 ; and works, justification by, 
236 ; of Adam and Eve in Eden, 146 ; 
trial of, 67 ; summary of, at Joseph's 
death, 256 

False Prophet, 322, 342, 348, 352 

Father, the, and the Elohim, 166 ; in 
relation to creation, 168 

Fathers, the, of Israel, 205 ; biographies 
of indispensable, 206 

Fig-leaf devices, 145 

First-born, Israel as the, 265 

Five Points of Prophetic Testimony, 199 

Flaming Sword, 132, 137 

Flesh, works of, 82 ; thinks, 115 ; the 
law " weak through the," 225 

Forty days, spies, 273 

"Foundation of the world," 110 

Four Beasts, vision of the, 299, 397 

Fourth Beast (Daniel's), 304 



Fulness of times, economy of, 413 

France, and the witnesses, 314 ; the broad 
way, 323 ; and the Revolution, 331 ; as 
Gomer, 389 

Free-will and obedience, 160 

French democracy, 332 

Frogs, the three spirits, 341 ; heraldry, 
343 ; and lilies, 347 ; historical illus- 
tration of working of, 348 ; mission of 
the, 350, 381 

Fruit, the forbidden, 62 

G 

Gabriel, the man, 357 

Galatia and Scythia, 389 

Gentiles, call of, 184, 242 

Geological error corrected, 9 

Germany and Magogue, 390 ; and Gogue, 
393 

" Get thee out of thy country, 207 

Glory of the Lord, likeness of, 138 

Goat, Daniel's He-, 356 ; four Horns of the 
goat, 356 ; fifth Horn, 356 ; little Horn 
of, 369 

God, and the Powers that be, 59 ; His 
law, and sin, 67 ; foreknowledge in re- 
lation to trial, 72 ; means what He says, 
74 ; Builder of all things, 152 ; has re- 
vealed the future, 294 ; the purpose of, 
154 ; premeditated all things, 153 ; the 
means by which His purpose is to be 
attained, 161 ; the Regulator of the 
world, 294 ; two-fold purpose, 158 ; all 
and in all, 416 

God, a strange, 370 

God's Truth the only rule of right and 
wrong, 83 ; rest, 274 

Gogue, of Ezekiel, 94 ; and Magogue, 

383 ; in Ezekiel and the Apocalypse, 

384 ; and the King of the North the 
same poAver, 384 ; derivation of name, 
391 ; like a whirlwind, 391 ; against 
the Little Horn, 391 ; poem to, 392 ; 
account of, by Fredegarius, 391 ; alleg- 
ory of, 393 ; Avill dominate Austria and 
Germany, 393 ; antagonised by Tarshish, 
394 ; future magnitude of his dominion, 
397 ; dominion styled " the goats," 410 

Gomer is France, 389 ; and Togarmah, 387 
Gospel, the, 172 ; reference to, 125 ; in 
the wilderness, 174, 273 ; apostolic 
preaching of endorsed by God, 175 ; 
in relation to the Mosaic economy, 260 ; 
and the Name of the Lord, 282 ; begin- 
ning of the, 359 ; preached to Abraham, 
172, 207, 413 ; to every creature, 195 ; 
to Isaac, 239 ; to Israel, 272 ; rejection 
of, 272 ; preached by Jesus, 174 ; Gos- 
pel and the hope of Israel the same, 
204 ; Gospel of the Kingdom a reality, 
414 ; Orthodoxy not the, 127 



420 



INDEX. 



Gogue and Magogue, of Ezekiel and John 

compared, 382, 398 
Great City figuratively called Sodom and 

Egypt, 323 
Great Earthquake in France, 330 
Grecian Leopard, 302, 356 
Greco-Egyptian power, 369 
Greco-Roman Dragon, 304 ; Church, 370 
Greece, Kingdom of, established, 338 



Habitable, the ; or Roman territory, 94 

Hades, keys of, 180 

Hagar, 229 

Harlots, Mother of, 96 

Heart-hardening, 242 

Heaven, "every creature under," 96 

Hidden Man of the Heart, 128 

Holy Land, not for ever subject to the 

Gentiles, 376 
Holy City (Rev. xi.), 311 
Holy Roman power, 357 
Hope, of Israel a reality, 204, 414 ; of the 

gospel, 205 
Horn, little, of fourth beast, 305 
House of Prayer, 285 
Huguenots, massacre of, 314 
Human designs as opposed to God's plan, 

157 ; agencies now at work, 158 
Hungary, a brittle toe Kingdom, 350 ; 

annexed to Austria, 350 



Image and likeness of God, 34, 168 
Immortality, defined, 33 ; doctrine of, 
133 ; first intimated, 64 ; in misery 
unscriptural and impossible, 64, 129 ; a 
positive evil in present state, 129 ; of 
the soul, a fable, 253 
Infant salvation and damnation, 28 
Inheritance, the law of, 173 ; everlasting, 

208 ; of the saints, 222 
Intermediate state, the true, 156 
Israel, God's firstborn, 265 ; baptised into 
Moses, 266 ; unable to redeem ,them- 
selves, 280 ; political resurrection of, 

399 ; restoration of, 400 ; Redeemed 
not by Convei-sionism. 401 ; two signs 
of the restoration, 402 ; will mourn 
over Jesus, 407 ; assembled in Egypt, 
412 ; orthodox belief of restoration, 

400 ; the hope of, 204 ; grafted into 
their own olive, 400, 407 ; probation of, 
412 ; to cross the Nile and pass through 
the Red Sea on foot and march into 
Canaan, 412 ; as a strong nation, 199 ; 
reunite witli Judah, 413 ; Christ their 
King for one thousand years, 413 ; new 
covenant delivered to, 408 ; Common- 
wealth of, 119, 135 



Isaac, 230 ; the ottermg of, 233 ; leaves 
Gerar and goes to Beer-sheba, 239 ; the 
gospel preached to, 239 ; Philistines 
make peace with, 239 ; deceived by 
Jacob, 243 

Ishmael, and Isaac, allegory, 228 ; as 
types, 230 ; future carrying out of the 
allegory, 231 



Jacob, elected before birth, 240 ; supplanted 
Esau, 243 ; departs to Haran, 244 ; 
ladder, 245 ; returns to Canaan, 248 ; 
wrestles with the angel, 248 ; God's 
promise renewed to, 249 ; cares for his 
bones, 252 ; his prophecy of the last 
days, 254 ; death, 252 ; migrates into 
Egypt, 211 ; remnant of, 408 

Japhet's seven sons, 387 

Jerusalem in Widowhood, 229 ; the 
heavenly, 232 

Jesus, the manifestation of God, 36 ; and 
the Bride, 46 ; as the way of life, 140 ; 
preached the Kingdom of God, 174 ; as a 
Messenger, 176 ; heir to the throne of 
David, 177 ; and the end of the world, 
192 ; and Joseph, 250 ; to bripig Jacob 
again to God, 281 ; temptation ex- 
plained, 69 ; hereditary nature, 115 ; 
rejected by the Jews, 216 ; Son of God, 
176 ; name of, 187 

Jesus Christ, Things of the Name of, 
171 ; the name of, 286 

Jews, under the law, 226 ; colonization of, 
406 ; restoration ; England their protec- 
tor, 402 ; recognize the Messiah as Jesus 
of Nazareth, 407 ; inwardly, 400 

John the Baptist, 178 359 ; as Elijah, 
411 

Joseph, parable of, 249 ; and Jesus, 250 ; 
in Egypt, 251 ; cares for his bones, 252 ; 
summary of faith at his deatli, 256 

Jubilee and the Millennium, 226 

Judah, lion of the tribe of Judah, 394 ; 
reunited Avith Israel, 413 ; new cove- 
nant delivered to, 407 ; becomes invin- 
cible, 408 

Judaizing Christians, 23, 213, 281 

Judgment, 10 

Justification by faith and works, 236 

Justinian, epoch, 326 ; and the strange 
god, 370 ; and Phocas, 372 



Keys of the kingdom, 179 ; of knowledge, 
180 ; of Hades, 180 ; Peter's use of, 182; 
become the property of believers, 190 

Kingdom of God : the kingdoms of the 
Would in kelation to the, 202, 292 ; 
set up in Judea, 407 ; overthrow of, 
278 ; restoration is commenced, 341 



IOT)EX. 



421 



King, rejected, 272 ; of Forth and of South 
(Dan. xi.), 363; the, and the strange 
god, 368 ; of the South, 378 ; of the 
North, 378, 384 ; of the North and Gog 
the same, 386 ; of the South pushed at 
the Sultan, 379 

Kingdom, the, 276 ; of God, 158, 171 ; 
preached by Jesus, 174 ; in the future, 
133 ; mystery of, 179 ; elements of a, 
201 ; keys of the, 178 ; re-establishment 
of, 280 ; of Satan, 86 ; delivered up to 
God, 416 ; in the prophets, 199 ; pre- 
paring, 200 ; of old, 271 ; Royal House 
of, 274 ; and throne of David, 276 ; 
7101V non-existent, 277 ; overturned, 278 ; 
past and future, 279 ; of Austrasia, 391 ; 
the Macedonian, 93, 356 

Kingdoms, the ten, 297 



Laity and Clergy, 129, 144 

Lake of fire, 96, 322 

Lamb, slain from the foundation of the 
world, 114 ; song of, 266 

Lamb's Wife, 353 ; the Lamb, 135 

Land of Promise, specified, 213 ; bound- 
aries of, 215 ; never yet possessed by 
Israel, 215 ; and the Turk, 376 ; cleans- 
ing of, 377 

Land shadowing with wings, 403 

Law, which goes forth from Zion, 222 ; 
Mosaic, 110 ; the new. 111 ; in regard 
to Sabbath day, 18 ; Judaizing Christians 
and, 24, 214 ; of faith, 121 ; of Moses 
a/ter Abrahamic covenant, 214 ; the 
Jews under, 226 ; limited tenure of the 
Land under. 226, 227; "weak through 
the flesh," 225 

Leonists, the, 313 

Leopard of Daniel's Visions, 302, 397 ; 
Britain the latter-day, 303 

Libyans and Ethiopians, 384 

Life of man and beast, 30 

Light, of the Scriptures, 5, 125 ; God the 
Source of, 126 ; within, 148 

" Likeness of God," 34, 169 

Lion of the tribe of Judah, 394 ; of Daniel's 
Visions, 299, 397 ; power of Tarshish, 
394, 404 

Little Horn, 305, 308, 336, 369, 376 ; 
eyes and mouth of, 319, 373 ; of Goat, 
355, 360, 369 ; two, 357 

Living soul, 28 

Lord's, the, day, 12 ; supper, 270 ; rest, 
273 ; passover, 268 ; fulfilment of, pass- 
over, 270 ; Lord the Spirit, 39, 116 

Love scripturally defined, 147 

M 

Maccabean epoch, 367 
Macedonian kingdom, 93, 356 



Magog, region styled, 388 ; geographic- 
ally associated with France, 389 ; and 
Germany, 390 

Mahuzzim-I3azaars, 371, 373 

Man, formation of, 25 ; in the image and 
likeness of the Elohim, 28, 34 ; in his 
novitiate, first state, 64 ; of sin, 94 ; 
the, Gabriel, 358 ; his dominion, 56 ; 
sovereignty, domestic only, and limited, 
58 ; degenerates if left to himself, 112 ; 
hidden, of the heart, 128 ; not a mere 
machine, 159 

Man-child of sin, Constantine, 95 

Manna in the wilderness, 267 

Mark, of the Beast, 309 

Marriage, in Eden, 45 ; with the Alien, 108 

Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 315, 316 

Medes, 356 ; and Persians, 296 

Mediator, Jesus of the New Covenant, 217 

Mehemet Ali as king of the South, 379 

Melchisedec, priesthood of, 176, 284 

Memorial Name of God, 264 

Men become saints by adoption, 120 

Mentality, the designed of God, 80 

Merchandise, Rome's, 375 

Merchants of Tarshish, 396 

Meshech and Tubal, Gogue is king of, 384 

Messiah, the prince, 357; " as a thief," 
341, 351 ; the future King of the 
world, 413 ; recognized by Jews as Jesus 
of Nazareth, 407 ; cutting off of, 358 

Michael the Great Prince, 357, 384, 405 

Millennium, 157, 413 ; and Jubilee, 226, 
399 ; Revolt of nations after, 415 

Mind, Carnal, 79 ; the Serpent, 82 

Missionaryism, modern, futility of, 197 

Mistakes of Jew and Gentile concerning 
Christ, 176 

Moab the British power, 404 

Morning stars, 49, 166 

Mortality defined, 33 

Moses, 39 ; the call of, 262 ; sent to 
Pharaoh, 261; "called and sent of 
God," 263 ; acceptation of, by Israel, 
264 ; declares glad tidings, 264 ; they 
refuse to hear him, 265 ; Israel bap- 
tised into, 266 ; Song of, 266 

Mother, Church, 94 ; of Harlots, 96 

Mount Zion, 404 

Mouths of Dragon, &c., 342 

Mystery, the Word of God, an intelligible, 
3 ; of Iniquity, 4 ; Paul shows Corinthians 
a, 41 ; of the Kingdom of God, 178 ; 
the Revealed, 181 

N 

Name of Jesus Christ, things concerning 

280, 286 
Names, symbolic, of Russia, 94 
Nantes, Edict of, 315 ; revocation of 

same, 317 



422 



INDEX. 



Napoleon 1., 334; as man ot the earth, 

312 ; kings of Europe meet him at 

Dresden in 1812, 381 
Nations, the, not God's people, 219, 220 ; 

many to be joined to the Lord, 221 ; 

unable to save themselves, 280 ; of the 

image to be subdued by Israel, 407 ; 

their crimes and punishment, 321 ; 

blessedness of, 413 ; loyalty to king of 

Israel, 413 ; all, shall serve the Lord, 

413 
Nature, hereditary, of Jesus, 115 
Navarino, battle of, 338 
Nebuchadnezzar's image, 292, 295, 343 ; 

members of, 296 ; countries symbolised 

by, 397 
New birth, 122 
New creation, 155 
New man, 128 
Nile, Israel to cross the, 412 
Nineveh, as capital of Assyria, 299 
Noah and the hope of the Sethites, 109 



Obedience, 68 ; the act of, 124 ; and love, 

147 ; and free will, 160 
Offerings of Cain and Abel, 105 
One body, the, 49, 127, 143 
One hope, the, 414 
"Orthodoxy," so called, not the Gospel, 

127 



Pagan Roman power, 357 
Pandemonianism of the world, 292 
Papacy, destruction of the, 298 
Papal, dynasty, 96 ; Bloodshed, 309 ; 

nations, crimes of, 321 ; latter-day 

judgments of crimes, 332 
Parable of the seed, 231 ; of Joseph, 249 
Paradise, 52 ; and the thief on the cross, 

54 
Paraphrase of Daniel xi., 362 
Passover, the, 269 ; in the kingdom of 

God, 270 
Pattern of the redeemed : Christ, 40 
Paul : what he preached "first of all," 287 
Peace, and safety cry, 100 ; society the 

enemy of God, 103 ; cry, a sign of the 

times, 104 ; Clirist "came }iot to give," 

102 ; basis of Christ's, 102 ; how and 

wliy the world wants, 103 ; for one 

thousand years, 413 
Pentecost, 182 
Perdition, son of, 96 
Perfecting of the Sons of God, 169 
Persians, 301, 356 ; and Medes, 296 
Peter, on the day of Pentecost, 182 ; his 

vision at Joppa, 184 ; at the house of 

Cornelius, 187 
Phcmtasma, 39 



Pharaoh and heart-hardening, 242 

Phocas, reign of, 372 

Pioiis, title of, 370 ; reforms of Pius IX., 
339 

Plan, the divine, 153 ; opposed by human 
counter-schemes, 158 

Pneicma, 39 

Poem about Gog, 392 

Poland annexed, 339 

Police, ecclesiastical, 131 

Political resurrection of the Little Horn, 
323 

Popes, 95 

Potentate, the Blessed and only, 165 

Powers, that be, and God, 59 ; Policies of, 
399 

Preadamic world, 9 

Preparation period, 353 

Press, the, 293 

Priesthood of Aaron, 283 ; Melchisedec, 
176, 283 ; Shiloh, 283 

Prince of this World, 86 ; cast out, 89 ; 
of the World shown to be sin, 88 ; or 
Peace, 101 ; of Princes, 357 ; of the 
Host, 357 ; Messiah, the, 357 ; of Ros, 
385 ; Michael the Great, 357, 385, 405 ; 
of the power of the air, 89 

Principles of religion, summary of, 99 

Probation before exaltation, 68 

Promise, of resurrection to Abraham, 
211 ; land of, specified, 213 ; made to 
Abraham, 206 ; heirs according to, 206 

Promises, the, 176 ; made of God to the 
Fathers, 203 ; and the Hope of Israel, 
204 ; time of the, arrives, 262 

Prophecy of last days, Jacob's, 253 

"Prophet," the False, 342 

Prophetic, testimony, five points, 199 ; 
word, proper use of, 292, 295 

Prophets on the Kingdom of God, 199 

Protestant Fallacies, 7 



Qualifications of an apostle, 192 
Queen of Sheba, 384, 395 

R 

Ram, Daniel's, 356 ; Power of Daniel 

viii. 3, 378 
Rebels of Israel to be purged out, 411 
Reconciliation, God alone dictates terms 

of, 142 ; word of, 143 
Red Sea, 266 ; Israel to cross the, 412 
" Regeneration, in the," 231, 280 
Reinerius, and the two witnesses, 313 
Religion, princi})les of, 99, 129, 141 ; of 
two kinds, 148 ; temporary, 149 ; word 
exi)lained, 141 ; false, 141 ; defined, 
145 ; summary of principles, 150 
Religious world ruled by terror, 131, 141, 
142 



INDEX. 



423 



Remission of sins, 187, 287 

"Repent and be baptised," 183 

Repentance, 287 ; deathbed and gaol, 289 

" Rest that remaineth," 274 

Restoration of Israel, 281 ; (see Israel), 
glory of, 413 

Resurrection, 38, 41, 212, 340 ; necessitated 
by the terras of God's promise, 211 ; 
political, of Israel, 399 ; political, of 
the Little Horn power, 323 

Revealed mystery, the, 163 

Revelation, necessity of, 1 ; an intelligible 
mystery, 3 

Revolution, the Great French, 331 ; the 
post-millennial, 415 

Right and Wrong, 83 

Righteousness, the constitution of, 119 ; 
Sun of, 126, 213 

Rock, the smitten, 268 

Roman, Dragon, 304, 323, 397 ; is bound, 
341 ; power, 153 ; habitable, 371 ; 
image, 309 ; Beasts, 306, 321, 357 

Rome, old and new, 93; "merchandise 
of," 375 

Royal house of the kingdom, 274 

Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, 386 

Euach Elohim^ 167 

Rudiments of the world, 113 

Russia, the head, 298, 369, 394 ; symbolic 
names of, 94 ; as Ros, 386 ; as the 
Assyrian of the latter days, 379 ; inun- 
dates the Holy Land in the latter days, 
380 ; and England in the time of the 
end, 382 ; on Danube in 1848, 337 ; and 
Turkey, relations broken off, 337 ; in 
Italy and Germany, 336 

s 

Sabbath, 12 ; the law in regard to the, 14, 
18 ; a sign, 14 ; and Jesus, 15 ; and 
Paul's teaching, 16 ; and Jewish Chids- 
tians, 17 ; and the assembling on the first 
day of the week, 18 ; in the Restoration 
of Israel, 19 ; summary concerning the, 
22 

Sabbatarianism modern, not of God, 21 

Sacrifice, Abraham's typical, 210 ; of 
Christ, 361 ; daily, suppressed, 361 

Sadducees, ancient and modern, 212 

Sanctuary, cleansing of the, 377 

Saints, the inheritance of, 222 ; the, 307 ; 
God will avenge His, 320 ; executioners 
of the Little Horn, 322 ; and king of 
Israel, shall rule the world, 413 

Salvation, infant, 27, 189 

Sarah, 261 

Satan, 69, 312 ; devil and, 88 ; and dis- 
ease, 90 ; kingdom of, 86 ; bound of, 
90 ; bound, 414 ; release of, 415 

Scripture, the court of last appeal, 154 ; 
how to read, 155 



Scythse, name of a people of Europe, and 
as Magog, 387 ; and Galatia, 389 

Second death, 118 

Seed, of Abraham, 206, 208,239; "in 
thy," explained, 219 ; the two, 92, 228, 
229 ; of the woman, 92, 99, 146 ; of the 
serpent, 92, 99 ; parable of the, 232 

Serpent, the, 72 ; how he knew, 75 ; mind, 
82 ; deceives the woman, 74 ; sin in the 
flesh, 83 ; the old, 91, 92 ; and "the 
woman," war between, 92 ; Dragon, 
symbol of, 93 ; the wicked one, 84 ; 
seed of, 91, 99 ; sentence on, particular- 
ized, literel and allegorical, 98 

Seth, 104 ; appointed, 106 ; eight sons of, 
109; "in the image and likeness of 
Adam," 35 ; type of Christ, 106 

Sethites, 108 

Seven thousand years, 157, 163 

Seventy weeks, 358 

Sex in animals and in man : a difference, 
43 

Shadow of things to come, 22 

Shadowing with wings, 403 

Sheba, the British power, 394 ; Queen of, 
395 ; Dedan and Tarshish, 395 

Shiloh, reign of, 282 ; priesthood of, 283 

Signs of Israel's Restoration, 402 

Sinai, at, 272 

Sin, constitution of, 114 ; twofold sense 
of the term, 114 ; Jesus "made sin," 
116 ; shame and fear, 78 ; " sin in the 
flesh," 83, 145 ; personified, 84; origi- 
nal, 116 ; power, 319 ; Constantine 
and, 20, 24 

Sinners, men in a twofold sense, 118 

Society, the "order" of, 312 

Sodom and Rome, 323 

Son of perdition, 96 

Sons of God. 107, 167, 169 ; by adoption, 
173 

Song, of Moses, 266, 412 ; of the Lamb, 
412 

Souls, vain philosophies concerning, 26 ; 
in the word of God, 28 

Spies and the forty days, 273 

Spirit, 31 ; " beareth witness, " 187 ; "and 
breath " God's, 32 ; Lord the, 39, 116 

Spirits, angels, 246 ; three unclean, 343 

Spiritual body, 37 ; "flesh and bones," 39 

Stars, morning, 49, 166 

Stone power, 357 

Strange god, 368, 370 

Succession, Apostolic, 190 

Suez, gulf of, 380 

Sultan, the, 379 ; overthrow of, 382 

Summary, of principles of religion, 150 ; 
of the faith at the death of Joseph, 256 

Sun of righteousness, 126 ; of Roman 
Europe, 334 



424 



INDEX. 



Sword, flaming, 137 

Systems, the two, natural and spiritual, 164 



Tarshish, lion power of, 394, 404 ; versus 
Gogue, 394 ; merchants of, 396 ; young 
lions of, 396 ; identified as British 
power. 394 ; Alexandrine dominion of, 
398 

Temple of the Future Age, 285 

Temptation, of Adam, 76 ; of Jesus ex- 
plained, 69 

Ten-horned Dragon ot Nebuchadnezzar's 
image, 304 ; tenth horn of the Beast, 
338 

Ten toe kingdoms enumerated, 297, 355 ; 
subjection of, 399 ; and ten Horns the 
same, 339 

Ten tribes, return of, occupy forty years, 
409 

Thief on the cross, 54 ; a unique case, 
163 

Thinking of the Flesh, 115 

Thousand, seven, years, 153, 163 

Throne of David, 276 ; Jesus heir to, 177 

Time, times, and dividing of time, 327 ; 
of the end, 376; Israel's, of trouble, 407 

Titles of the Messiah, 357 

Togarmah, Russia and Tartary are the 
countries of, 390 

Transgression of Adam, 62 ; nature of, 75 

Transgressors, trial of the, 97 

Tree, of life, 53 ; of lives, 63, 75, 140 ; 
of death, 60 ; of knowledge of good 
and evil, 60 ; fruits of literal and 
figurative, 61 ; the way of the, of life, 
107, 140 

Trial of faith, 68 ; of Adam and Eve, 97 

Trouble, time of, 339, 340 

Trumpet, sixth, 337 ; seventh, 332 

Truth, the, indicated, 171 ; must be be- 
lieved, 171 

Turkey, and the sixth vial, 337, 360 ; 
energized by France and England, makes 
war with Russia, 348 ; and the Holy 
Land, 376 

Twelve tribes constituted the Kingdom of 
God, 271 

Two principles of good and evil, 124 

Type. Eve, of the Church, 46 ; Joseph, 
249 ; Abel, 106 ; in Israel, 267 

Tyre suppressed, 51 



Unclean spirits, 343, 350 

Unicorn, Daniel's, 356 ; British, 303 ; 

Goat, 397 
Unity of Worship in the Millennium, 413 
Universal Bishop, as a god, 372 
Universalism a fallacy, 162 



Veil of the Temple, 136 

Vengeance, day of, 378 ; for the elect, 320 

Vials, of the wrath of God, 330, 333 ; first 
and fourth, 338 ; second, 334 ; third 
and fourth, 334, 338 ; fifth, 335 ; sixth, 
336, 337, 338, 340, 360 ; sixth in the 
West 339 ; seventh, 333, 340 

Vision of the East, 355 ; West, 356 ; four 
Beasts, 299, 397 



w 

War, a divine institution, 101 ; between 
Algeria and France, 338 ; Egypt and 
Turkey, 338 ; Russia and the Porte, 
1828, 380 ; King of the South and the 
Porte, 1838, 379 ; Turkey and Greece, 
338 ; Russian, 1829, 379 

" Washing of water by the word," 122 

" Watcheth and keepeth his garments," 
352 

Water, "can any forbid," 188 

Way of life, kept by flaming sword, 132, 140 

Weeks, seventy, of Dan. ix., 358 

West, the, and the sixth vial, 339 

Western Empire, Restoration of, 328 

Wicked One, the, 84, 86, 373 

Wilderness of Egypt, gospel preached in, 
174 

Wings, land shadowing with, 404 

Wisdom, 4 

Witnesses, the three, 121 ; two, 307, 313 ; 
historical glimpses of, 308 ; and France, 
314 ; death of two, 318, 323 ; ascensiori 
of, 325 ; doings of the, 330 ; unburied 
state of, 318, 325 ; resurrection of, 319 ; 
execute justice on their enemies, 330 

Woman, formation of, 42 ; seed of the, 
51, 91, 99, 146 ; great mystery of her 
formation, 46 ; serpent dedeived the, 
73 ; sentence upon the, 110 ; her social 
position defined, 110 ; as the tempter, 
111 

"Woman" (Rev. xii.), the earth helps 
the, 310 

Word, the, preached by the Apostles, 
143 ; of reconciliation, 143 ; washed by 
the, 122 ; God's attestation of, 143 

Works, of the devil, 90 ; of faith, which 
justify, 236 

World, Pre-adamic, 9 ; foundation of the, 
110 ; rudiments of the, 113 ; the pro- 
fessing, 131 ; God's enemy, 85 ; God 
reconciled to the, 141 ; heirs of the, 
200, 222 ; Prince of the, 86 ; end of, 
signs of its approach, 195 ; age of the, 
413 ; " before the began," 194 ; in the 
parable of the Sower, 194 ; "to come," 

■ 247 ; why it is to be judged, 291 ; 
pandemonianisn) of 292 



INDEX. 



425 



World-rulers of this age, 
Wrong, what is ? 83 



Yahweh, the Memorial Name of God, 
264 

Years, return of ten tribes to Canaan ; 
forty, 410 ; seventy -five, 330 ; four 
hundred and ninety, and division of 
them, 359 ; one thousand, 157, 330, 
413 ; end of one thousand, 414 ; end of 



twelve hundred and sixty, 321, 325, 
330, 335 ; twelve hundred and ninety, 
337, 360 ; thirteen hundred and thirty- 
five, 361 ; end of, 327 ; twenty-three 
or twenty-four hundred, 378 ; seven 
thousand, 157. 163, 416 



Zedekiah's overthrow, 378 
Zion, mount, 403 



INDEX OF SCRIPTURES QUOTED. 

Note. — The first figures are the chapter and verse in the Bible ; 
the last figures are the page in Elpis Israel. 



Genesis. 

i. 1 10. 

2 10, 30. 

20 29. 

,,20-25 12-29. 

,, 28-31 12-29. 

30 29. 

ii. 7 28. 

„ 7-25 11. 

8 50. 

,, 10-14 50. 

,, 17 60. 

18 43. 

19 12,29,43 

,, 21-24 45. 

25 65. 

iii. 3 60. 

5 60. 

7 60, 74. 

15 89, 92. 

,, 17-19 61, 62. 

22 60,63,74, 

169. 

,, 23 63. 

iv. 14 134. 

26 107. 

V. 3 35, 168. 

vi. 1-5 108. 

2 107. 

12 140. 

,, 17 29. 

vii. 15,21 29. 

ix. 11 32. 

26 206. 

X. 6, 7 395. 

XI. 4, 8 158. 

,,21,28 207. 

31 207. 

32 233. 

xii. 2, 3 207. 

7 208. 

48 248. 

xiii. 10-12 50. 

,,14-17 208. 

XV. All 209. 

7 207. 



Genesis — continued. 

XV. 13-16 262. 

17 138. 

18 50, 53. 

., 21 213. 

xvi. 12 231. 

xvii. 1-8 223. 

19 230. 

„ 20 231. 

,, 24,25 232. 

xviii. 1 166. 

„ 12 111. 

XX. 1, 15 232. 

xxi. 1 229. 

,, 23 240. 

„ 25-34 232. 

xxii. 14 234. 

,,16-18 222. 

xxiii. 1-11 233. 

xxiv. 20 238. 

,, 35 238. 

XXV. 1-3 395. 

,, 11 245. 

18 50. 

,, 23 245. 

,,27-34 243, 244. 

xxvi. 2-5 239. 

29 240. 

xxviii. 1-4 245. 

4 245. 

,,10-15 245. 

xxxi. 38 247. 

xxxii. 164. 

xxxiv. 25-29 254. 

XXXV. 9 166. 

,,11,12 248. 

,, 29 249. 

xl. 8 251. 

xli. 48 248. 

xlv. 6 248. 

xlvii. 9 .248. 

,,29-31 252. 

xlix. 8-12 255. 

,,29-;53 252. 

1. 2-4 253. 



Exodus. 

iii. 2 262. 

6 212. 

,, 6-10 262. 

,, 13 261. 

,, 15 262. 

16 261, 262. 

17 262. 

iv. 5 205. 

,, 31 263. 

V. 22 264. 

vii. 1 262. 

xii. 269. 

2 265. 

,, 40-42 265. 

xiii. 19 253. 

xiv. 26-31 266. 

19 266. 

XV. 17,18 266. 

xvi. 4 19. 

,, 29 15. 

33 135. 

xvii. 6 268. 

xix. 3-6 271. 

6 400. 

18 137. 

xxiii. 28 166. 

XXV. 10-21 134. 

xxxi 12-17 14. 

XXXV. 2, M 14. 

xl. 35-38 137. 

Leviticus. 

ix. 24 138. 

xvii. 11 33. 

xxiii. 34-43 19. 

XXV, 23-28 226. 

xxvi. 40-42 226. 

42 380. 

Xumbers. 

xiii. xiv. 273. 

XV. 32-36 14. 

xvii. 8 135. 



INDEX. 



427 



N umbers — continued. 


1 @hron] 


icles. 


Psalms- 


continued. 


xix. 229. 


xxi. 


16,18, 




Ixxxix. 3,4.. 


....276. 


XX. 10-24 268. 




26.... 


..138. 


,,19-28.. 


....276. 


xxiv. 19 240. 


xxii. 


1.... 


..138. 


,, 34-37.. 


....276. 


24 366. 








,,38-45.. 


....278. 


XXV. 1,2 108. 








,,46-49.. 


....278. 


xxvii. 15 32. 


2 ehron 


cles. 


xci. 11-12.. 


....71. 


xxviii. 9, 10 15. 


iii. 


1.... 


..233. 


xcv. 11.. 


....273. 


XXX. 3, 15 110. 


V. 


14.... 


..137. 


,, 7-11.. 


....55, 273. 




vi. 


1.... 


..137. 


xcvii. 7.. 


....35, 165. 




vii. 


1.... 


..138.. 


ciii. 19-21.. 


....168. 


Deuteronomy. 


viii. 


7.... 


..227. 


„ 20.. 


....35. 


iv. 24 136. 

V. 15 14. 

vi. 16 71. 

viii. 2 72. 

3 71. 

,, 19 55. 


xxxvi. 22,23 359. 

Nehemiah. 


CIV. 29.. 

ex. 1.. 

4.. 

cxix. 105.. 


....31. 
....174. 
....283. 
....125. 


ii. 


1,5, 
17.... 


..359. 


„ 142.. 
cxxxii. 11-18.. 


... 74. 
....56, 274. 


IX. 1 55. 

X. 6 224. 

xii. 23 32. 

xiii. 15 62. 


ix. 


30.... 


..47. 


cxxxix. 7.. 
cxliii. 3.. 
cxlix. 8 . . 


....31. 
....89. 
. ..395. 




Job. 




„ 5-9.. 


....60, 322. 


xxi. 23 226. 


1. 


8.... 


..70. 


— 


— 


xxvii. 9-26 18. 


vu. 


13-16.... 


..130. 


Proverbs. 


26 226. 


XIV. 


4.... 


..116. 






xxviii. 49-52 369. 


XV. 


14-16.... 


..116. 


iii. 13.. 


... 64. 


,,58,63 226. 


XXV. 


4.... 


..116. 


,, 14-18. 


....5. 


XXX. 6. ...224. 


xxxi. 


33.... 


..97. 


„ 18.. 


....63, 118. 


,,18,19 55. 

xxxii. 43 (LXX.) 35. 


xxxu. 


8... 
9.... 


..65. 
..28. 


V. 3-5.. 
vi. 23. 


....111. 
....125. 




XXXlll. 


4.... 


..28, 65. 


XV. 8, 9. 


....24. 






6.... 


..33. 


„ 26-29. 


....24. 


Joshua. 


XXXIV. 


14... 
10.... 

4-7... 


..30. 
..30. 
..12. 


— 


- 


xix. 1-9 254. 


xxxvii. 
xxxviii. 


Ecclesiastes. 


xxiv. 2-24 207. 








ii. 5.. 


....52. 


,, 14 256. 








iii. 19,20. 


....32. 


32 253. 




Psalms. 


,, 19-21.. 


....34. 




i. 


2.... 


..254. 


V. 1,2. 


....141. 


1 Samuel. 


viii. 


5... 


..34. 


vii. 29. 


....78. 




XIV, 


1.... 


..105. 








XV. 3 118. 

,,22,23 148. 


xvi. 
xxii. 


11... 
16.. 


..140. 

..254. 


Song of Solomon. 




xxxvii. 


11.... 


..149. 


iv. 12,13.. 


....52. 




,, 


29,34.... 


..217. 


. 




2 Samuel. 

vii. 11-16 275. 


xlv. 


6... 
10-15... 


..164. 
..49. 


Isaiah. 


xxiii. 3 21, 230, 

276. 
,, 4 . 21 276 


xlix. 


16... 
7, 9... 


..231. 
..151. 


ii. 2. 
„ 3.. 


....222, 402. 
....222, 255, 


li. 


5... 


..116. 




285, 414. 


5 276. 


,, 


10... 


..128. 


4.. 


....102, 157, 


Iviii. 


4... 


..89. 




223. 




Ixxii. 


4... 


..102. 


iii. 26. 


....229. 


1 Kings. 


,, 


6-11... 


..221. 


iv. 3. 


....339. 






7 . 


..102. 


viii. 7 . 


....403. 


xviii. 28 141. 


Ixxii. 


8... 


..215. 


„ 14. 


....401. 




J, 


11,17... 


..102, 221. 


20.. 


....5,47,125. 


2 Kings. 


Ixxviii. 


39... 


..109. 


21. 


...281. 


Ixxx. 


1-3... 


..138. 


ix. 2. 


....125. 


ix. 22 101. 


Ixxxii. 


6 


..166. 


1 „ 4. 


....409. 



428 



INDEX. 



Isaiah — continued. 

ix. 6 38, 182. 

xi. 1 135, 285. 

„ 11 20. 

,, 12 261, 303, 

404. 
„ 15,16... ..261, 409, 
412. 
xiii. 3,17, 

18 307,308. 

xvi. 3 405. 

4 394. 

5 19, 405. 

xvii. 13,14 403. 

xviii. 3.. ....404. 

7 403. 

xix. 23 220. 

,,24,25 53. 

xxiv. 23 139, 157, 

222, 247, 
279, 352. 

XXV. 7 228, 413. 

,, 8 41, 

xxviii. 16 255. 

xxix. 5-8 394. 

XXX. 27-33 371. 

xxxi. 8 371. 

9 195, 371. 

xxxiii. 6 131. 

xxxiv. 5 331. 

xxxvi. All 300. 

xxxvii. 12,13 51. 

xl. 10 56, 28]. 

,,12,13, 

14 153. 

xli. 17-20 53. 

xlii. 4 202,413. 

,, 8, 9 264. 

14 292. 

xliii. 1-7 406. 

xlv. 7 114. 

„ 22,23, 

24 221. 

xlix. 1-3 281. 

5 56, 281. 

6 56, 281, 

413. 

8 56, 281. 

li. 3 53-. 

9 409. 

,, 16 285. 

liii. 4, 5 283. 

,, 5, 10 286. 

liv. 4, 5 229. 

Iv. 1-3 119. 

3 275. 

,, 13 53. 

Ivi. 3-6 286. 

,, 6, 7 222, 285. 

Ivii. 13 223. 

„ 21 100. 



Isaiah — continued. 

Iviii. 13,14 12. 

Ix. 1, 2 52. 

,, 5, 10 222. 

,,14,18 223. 

,,21,22 223. 

Ixii. 4, 5 53. 

., 6, 7 377. 

Ixiv. 8 33. 

Ixv. 8-10 241. 

,,17,18 13. 

20 414. 

Ixvi. 24 385. 

Jeremiah. 

iii. 17 413. 

iv. 7 299. 

X. 2, 3 352. 

xvi. 19 413. 

xvii. 21-27 14. 

xxiii. 5 279, 285, 

405. 

6 122,279. 

,,23,24 77. 

xxxi. 15-17 410. 

,, 31 411. 

,,31-34 229. 

xxxiii. 14 279, 405. 

,, 15 279, 285, 

405. 

„ 16 279. 

,, 17 278. 

,,20,21 278. 

li. 20-23 409. 

Ezekiel. 

i. 4,13, 

14 138. 

,,26-28 138. 

iv. 1-8 368. 

xi. 19 128. 

XX. 33-38 411. 

40 412. 

xxi. 25-27 195, 278. 

xxiii. 11 241. 

xxvii. 13 387. 

,, 14 390. 

xxviii. 13,16, 

19 51. 

xxxi. 3-9 51. 

,, 31-34 229. 

xxxiii. 11 241. 

xxxiv.22-31 412. 

xxxvi.26-30 224. 

,, 33-38 242. 

xxxvii. 21-28 412. 

,,25-28 242. 

xxxviii. 2 94, 383. 

3 383. 



'B.Z^lii^i— continued, 

xxxviii. 8 93. 

9 93, 404. 

10 93. 

,, 11,12 93, 402. 

13 402. 

15 404. 

., 16 330,404. 

,, 18-22 394. 

xxxix. 4 93, 94, 

341. 

6 383. 

,, 11 385. 

,, 11-16 377. 

14 404. 

,,17-21 381. 

,,25 29 224, 242. 

xl. All 285. 

xli. ,, 285. 

xlii. , 285. 

xliii. 7-9 20. 

„ 27 20. 

xliv. 15,24 19. 

xlv. 21,22 270. 

xlvi. 16,18 227, 231. 

xlvii. 13,21 215. 

xlviii. 8, 22 255. 

,, 28 215. 

35. 279. 

Daniel. 

i. 21 361. 

ii. 20-22 294. 

,, 28 . ..93, 297, 
330. 

29 297. 

., 34 93. 

35 93, 155, 

222, 403. 

41 155. 

44 38, 40, 

155, 279, 
332. 

iv. 3 30. 

,, 17.. ...59, 294. 

,,20,22 51. 

,,34,35, 

37 300. 

v.23-31 301. 

vii. 3-7 299, 397. 

6 93. 

9 340. 

11 93, 321. 

13 174,305. 

14 157, 174, 

305. 

18 13, 174, 

279, 305. 

,, 22 13, 305, 

321. 



INDEX. 



429 



Daniel— continued. 


Mieah — continued. 


Matthew. 


vii. 


25 96. 


iv. 3-8 199. 




i. 17... 


..23. 




26 321, 322, 


,, 7,8 222. 




„ 21... 


...281. 




343. 


V. 1-9 200. 




iv. 1... 


..69. 




27 13, 157, 


,, 1-7.. .. 408. 




V. 12... 


..152. 




174, 305. 


8 409. 




,,22-24... 


..105. 


viii. 


357. 


15 200, 


222, 


vi. 1-4... 


..79. 




3 301. 


409. 




„ 5-7... 


..79. 




5 303. 


vii. 14-17 409, 


410. 


,,16-18... 


..79. 




9-12 55, 357. 


„ 16 221, 


410. 


„ 33... 


..106, 210. 




17 330, 377. 


,, 17 202, 


221, 


vii. 14... 


..133. 




19 377. 


410. 




,,21-23... 


..79, 196. 




23 365. 

24 55, 355. 






viii. 12... 


..163, 194, 
231. 




25 357, 369. 


Habakkuk. 




ix. 2,3,6... 


..191. 


ix. 


24 179,194. 


iii. 3-16 255. 




X. 19... 


..47. 




26 55, 194, 






,, 20... 


..47, 143. 




195. 357. 






„ 34... 


..102. 




27 195, 337. 






,,35,36... 


..58, 102. 


X. 


1 361. 

14 330, 361. 


Zephaniah. 




„ 37... 
xii. 5... 


..50. 
..15. 


xi. 


1-40.. ....362. 


iii. 9 413. 




,, 26... 


..86. 




2,3 356. 


,, 19,20 414. 




xiii. 11... 


..178. 




4 303, 397. 






,, 19... 


..47, 122. 




36 357. 






„ 22... 


..126. 




38 95, 357. 






„ 23... 


..99. 




39 95, 372, 


Zechariah. 




„ 28... 


..231. 




379. 


iii. 3,4 79. 

,, 8 285. 




,,31,32... 


..113. 


jj 


40 330, 350, 




,, 37-40 . 


..194. 




379. 


vi. 12-15 54, 285. 


„ 38.... 


..99. 


,, 


41 93, 341, 


viii. 23 414. 




„ 43.... 


..38. 




350. 


ix. 10 102, 


215. 


xiv. 26.... 


..40. 


)> 


45... ..93, 341, 


,, 12-16 409. 




XV. 6,9.... 


..128. 




357. 


X. 3-5 255, 


408. 


„ 24.... 


..174. 


Xll. 


1 94, 340, 


,, 7-11 409. 




xvi. 19.... 


..179. 




357, 362. 
2 3-J7, 340. 


,,10,11 412. 

xii. 6 255. 




xvii. 2.... 
xviii. 3-10.... 


..37. 
..246. 


5) 


3 38. 139, 


,, 5,6,9 408, 


409. 


xix. 28.... 


..269. 




363, 414. 


,, 10-14 351, 


407, 


xxi. 38,41.... 


..230. 




7 327, 355. 


408. 




xxiii. 5-15 ... 


..79. 


)5 


10 103. 


xiii. 1,6 9 407, 


408. 


„ 33.... 


. 82. 




12,13 327. 


xiv. 2 385. 




„ 35.... 


.52. 






3 409. 

4 54. 

,, 9 157, 




xxiv. 3.... 
„ 14.... 


..195. 
.175, 195. 




Hosea. 


408. 


„ 22.... 


..241. 


11. 


15 409. 


,, 12 385. 




,,38,39.... 


..109. 


Vlll. 


10 411. 


14 255, 


394. 


XXV. 23.... 


..13. 


)) 


13 412. 


,,16-19 20, 414. 


„ 34... 


. 13, 112. 


IX. 


9 409. 


,, 16-21 286. 




xxvi. 14.... 


..254. 






„ 21 227. 




„ 28..,. 
,,57,59.... 


..216. 
..254. 




Amos. 






xxvii. 46.... 


..210. 


iii. 


6 114. 






xxviii. 2.... 


..23. 


ix. 


7 294. 

11,12, 

14,15 54,177. 


Malachl. 

i. 2,3 240. 




„ 19.... 
,, 20.... 


..188. 
..17, 192. 






ii. 7-9 180. 

iii. 12 414. 










Micah. 


16 114. 




Mark. 


IV. 


1-7 408. 


iv. 3 152, 


408. 


i. 1... 


..359. 


J! 


3 408. 


„ 4-6 411. 




„ 12.... 


..69. 



430 



INDEX. 



M ark — continued. 


John — continued. 


Acts — continued. 


i. 14... 


..175. 




ii. 15,16... 


...61. 


ii. 32.. 


....144. 


ii. 27... 


...15. 




,. 25... 


...25, 34. 


,, 34.. 


....277. 


iv. 11... 


..178. 




iii. 2... 


...143, 263. 


„ 37.. 


....183. 


vi. 49... 


..40. 




,, 3-10... 


...122. 


., 38.. 


....121, 183. 


X. 29,30... 


..132. 




4.. 


...61. 


,, 41.. 


....184. 


xiii. 3, 4... 


..358. 




5... 


...40. 


„ 42.. 


....17, 22, 


„ 31 .. 


..55. 




6... 


...39, 40, 




184. 


„ 32... 


..55, 


193, 




116. 


iii. 20.. 


....193. 




358. 




„ 16., 


...112, 142. 


,,20,21.. 


....177, 193. 


XV. 37,38.... 


..136. 




„ 34... 


...47. 


22.. 


....193. 


„ 42... 


..210. 




iv. 24... 


...136, 165. 


,, 25.. 


....224. 


xvi. 1.... 


..23. 




V. 18... 


...36. 


iv. 12.. 


...183. 


,,15,16... 


..120, 


176. 


,,21-29... 


.. 41. 


„ 19.. 


... 58. 


„ 20... 


..175 




,, 47... 


...47. 


V. 9, 10.. 


....192. 








vi. 33... 


..135. 


29.. 


....58. 








57.. 


..54. 


31.. 


....288. 


Luke. 




„ 63... 


..47. 


vii. 2, 3.. 


...207. 


i. 17.... 


..411. 




vii. 16... 


..47. 


4.. 


. 233. 


,,31-33.... 


...217, 


281. 


viii. 39... 


..85. 


5.. 


...211. 


ii. 11.. . 


..55. 




44... 


..74, 85. 


„ 25.. 


...256. 


„ 14.. . 


..413. 




X. 27... 


..198. 


,, 35.. 


...262. 


iii. 15-23.... 


..359. 




,, 34.... 


..166. 


viii. 12.. 


...48, 121, 


iv. 1.... 


..69. 




xii. 48,49... 


47. 




172, 177. 


„ 6,7.... 


..71. 




,, 31.... 


..89. 


,,14-18.. 


...192. 


,,18,19, 






xiv. 6 ... 


..139. 


X. 34... 


...241. 


43.... 


..174. 




,, 21-24.... 


..147. 


xi. 15... 


...139. 


vii. 29.... 


..192. 




XV. 3.... 


..47. 


,, 18... 


...26, 288. 


viii. 1.... 


..175. 




5 , . 


..197. 


xiii. 11... 


...192. 


ix. 2, 6.... 


.174. 




16.... 


..191. 


,, 21... 


...233. 


xi. 50,51.... 


..114. 




xvi. 6.... 


..140. 


„ 34... 


...275. 


„ 52.... 


..180. 




„ 7, 10.... 


..183. 


xiv. 21.. 


...17, 132. 


xii. 49,51 . . 


.102. 




11.... 


..89. 


,, 23... 


...17. 


xiii. 10-17.... 


.90. 




„ 17.... 


..56. 


XV. 1... 


...16. 


„ 31-33.... 


.359. 




., 33.... 


.64, 90. 


5.. 


...16. 


xviii. 29,30.... 


.132. 




xvii. 4.... 


..23. 


9... 


...48, 131. 


xix. 11-15.... 


.174. 




xviii. 33-39.... 


..246. 


„ 10... 


...23. 


,,12,15.... 


.38. 




xix. 10.... 


..100. 


14.. 


...21, 195. 


XX. 27-38.... 


..212. 




,,12,19.... 


..246. 


,,14-18.. 


...177, 282. 


„ 35.... 


..35. 




,,28-30.... 


.23. 


22... 


...132. 


„ 36.... 


.35, 


41, 


,,33,34.... 


..48. 


.,24-29... 


...24. 




169, 


212. 


XX. 17.... 


..246. 


xvii. 2 .. 


...17. 


xxi. 22.... 


.360. 




„ 19.... 


.17. 


7... 


...175. 


„ 24.... 


..282. 




,,22.23.... 


.191. 


,, 11... 


...5, 181. 


xxii. 15-29.... 


.269. 




,, 26.... 


.17. 


12... 


...5, 181. 


xxiii. 43... 


..54. 




,, 27.... 


..39. 


,, 17... 


...17. 


„ 56.... 


.23. 




„ 31.... 


.287. 


30... 


...142. 


xxiv. 36-43.... 


.39. 








,, 31... 


...17. 175, 


,, 44-47.... 


.287. 










177. 








Hcts 


• 


xviii. 4... 


...17, 287. 








i. 3.... 


.55. 400. 


,, 5, 6... 


...287. 


John 


• 




6.... 


..55, 231, 


8... 


...122. 


i. 1-5.... 


.28. 






400. 


11... 


...287. 


5.... 


.27, 37, 1 


7.... 


.55, 193. 


xix. 8... 


...17, 177. 




126. 




8.... 


.191. 


19... 


...5. 


,, 11.... 


.216. 




,, 21.... 


.191. 


XX. 20-25... 


...177. 


„ 12.... 


.37. 




,, 22.... 


.191. 


,, 27.. 


..177. 


„ 29.... 


..100. 




ii. 2-4.... 


.139. 


,,29,30 . 


...145. 


„ 31.... 


..121, 


359. 


,, 28.... 


.140. 


xxi. 20... 


...24. 


„ 47.... 


.86. 




29.... 


'.277. 


,,24-26.. 


...24. 


„ 51.... 


..247. 




,, 30.... 


..177, 217. 


xxii. 5... 


...166. 



INDEX. 



431 



Rets— CO 


ntinucd. 


xxii. 16. 


....192. 


,,21,22.. 


....204. 


xxiii, 6.. 


....203. 


xxiv. 5, 6.. 


....204. 


xxvi. 6.. 


....177, 203. 


7. 


....177, 203 


[xviii. 20. 


....178, 204 


„ 23. 


....7, 87, 




178, 204. 


., 30.. 


....204. 


„ 31.. 


....7, 87, 




178, 204 


Romans. 


i. 3, 4.. 


....39. 


5. 


....106, 120. 


16.. 


....106. 


„ 17.. 


....106, 121. 


,,20-31.. 


....82. 


„ 22.. 


....133. 


„ 23 . 


....165. 


,,28,29.. 


....86. 


ii. 4.. 


....142. 


,, 7.. 


....123, 237. 


,,14,15.. 


....126. 


„ 20.. 


....98. 


,, 28.. 


...227. 


iii. 20.. 


....61. 


„ 21.. 


...106, 121. 


,. 22.. 


..106, 121. 


„ 25.. 


...106, 121, 


• 


137. 


„ ^26.. 


...106, 121. 


„ 27.. 


...121. 


iv. 7.. 


....79. 


„ 11.. 


...223, 233. 


„ 12.. 


...23. 


„ 13.. 


...113, 214. 


,,14,16.. 


...214. 


,, 17.. 


...212, 214. 


,,18-21.. 


...210. 


,,18-22.. 


...23. 


„ 20.. 


...44. 


25.. 


...17, 120, 




286. 


V. 6, 8.. 


...46. 


„ 12.. 


...82. 


„ 13.. 


...84. 


,, 14.. 


.. 98, 120. 


„ 18... 


...120. 


„ 19... 


...118, 120. 


vi. 3-11... 


...124. 


„ 7,12, 




19... 


...99. 


,,21-23... 


...61. 


„ 22... 


...66. 


vii. 5... 


...124. 


,,12,13... 


...69. 



Romans — continued. 

vii. 17,18 69, 115. 

22 128. 

23 36, 80. 

24 69. 

2 80. 

3 90, 116. 

5 83. 

6 81, 291. 



8 291. 

10 120. 

11 . .. 17,26,38, 
69, 116, 
120. 

13 61. 291. 

17-25 37. 

20 65, 117. 

6, 7 86, 231. 

8 173, 231. 

10-13 240, 245. 

14-33 243. 

17 48, 147. 

18 126. 

2-8 242. 

17 7. 

20 7, 127, 

401. 

21 241. 

22 7, 127, 

401. 

23 224, 401. 

25 127, 242. 

26 242. 

1-5 59. 

10 147. 

9, 10 20. 

12 202. 

25 3, 106, 

178. 

26 3, 106, 

178, 194. 



1 Corinthians. 

i. 10 144. 

„ 19 86. 

,, 20 86, 133. 

,, 24 64. 

,, 30 122. 

ii. 9, 10 2, 3. 

,, 9-16 133. 

,, 13 2, 68. 

iii. 18-21 3. 

,,21-23 222. 

22 132. 

iv. 20,21 192. 

V. 4, 5 192. 

5 91. 

7 269. 



1 ©orinthians— coH. 

V. 12,13 18. 

vi. 2 21,222. 

„ 3 11. 

,, 9-11 121. 

11 48. 

15 49. 

17 ...49. 

vii. 15 46. 

ix. 1 191. 

X. 1, 2 266. 

,, 3-6 268. 

xi. 7-9 45. 

,, 32 91. 

.,53,54 33. 

xiv. 3 342. 

,,34,35 111. 

XV. 3, 4 287. 

12 26. 

,, 14,20 17. 

21 38. 

,,21-23 120. 

23 27, 41. 

,, 24 -^7, 222, 

416. 

,, 28 150, 416. 

,,41-42 26, 139. 

44 29. 

45 29, 41. 

49 40. 

50 40, 287. 

,,53,54 33. 

xvi. 22, 196. 



2 Corinthians. 

ii. 6-11 91. 

iii. 3 80, 

„ 17 29. 

,, 18 29, 37. 

iv. 3, 4 .86, 126. 

6 37, 86, 

126 

7 128. 

,, 14 38, 41. 

16 128. 

V. 17 128. 

,, 18 144. 

19 131. 

20 131,144. 

21 116,122. 

vi. 2.... ..56. 

,,17-18 291. 

X. 5 85. 

xi. 2 49, 73. 

,. 2-4 95. 

,,13-15 192. 

„ 14 70. 

xii. 12 191. 



432 



INDEX. 



Galatians. 

i. 2 196. 

7 29. 

8 29, 71, 

144, 172. 
192, 196, 

9 27, 196. 

„ 11,12 128. 

ii. 8 li^3, 191. 

14 24, 192. 

21 225. 

iii. 4 16. 

8 172. 

,. 13 90, 226. 

,, 15 216. 

16 208. 

,, 17-18 213. 

,,19-29 214. 

,, 21 225, 288. 

26 174. 

,,26-29 48, 124, 

206 

iv. 3-10 16. 

,, 24 98. 

26 232. 

,, 28 173, 231. 

,, 29 99. 

,, 30 173. 

V. 3 225. 

4.. 16. 

6 131. 

,, 16-17 99. 

19 2, 22, 82. 

vi. 7-8 61,291. 



Ephesians. 

i. 9 152, 156. 

,, 10 19, 156. 

ii. 1, 2 . ...89. 

12 105, 119. 

,,13,19 119. 

20 136. 

iii. 3-10 3, 178. 

6 3, 119, 

178. 

9 178, 194. 

10 88, 144, 

178. 

11 89. 

17 48, 149. 

iv. 1 123. 

4 127, 144, 

196, 311. 

,, 17 119. 

,, 18 47, 115, 

119. 

,, 19 178. 

„ 23 47. 



Ephesians.- continued. 

iv. 24 47, 128. 

V. 22-32 50. 

villi, 12 88. 

,.14,17 309. 

,, 16 70. 

,, 19 178. 



Philippians. 

ii. 6,7,8 36. 

,, 9-11 39, 272. 

iii. 18,19 83. 

,,20,21 38. 



&olossians. 

i. 3..;. ..155. 

5 47, 196. 

6 175, 196. 

13 124. 

15 36. 

22 21, 68. 

23 21, 68, 

175, 196. 

26 23. 

3, 9 42, 137. 

10-12 122. 

11,12 228. 

14 15. 

16 6, 15. 

17 14, 151. 

18 6, 105. 

23 105. 

1-4 232. 

2 83. 

10 40, 47, 

128. 



1 Thessalonians. 

ii. 15-16 230. 

19 21. 

iii. 13 21. 

iv. 13-18 41. 

,,14-17 27. 

V. 1-3 104. 



2 Thessalonians. 

i. 7-10 18,27, 

220. 

8 18,27, 

■ 148, 220. 
ii. 2 11. 



2 Thess. — continued. 

li. 4 96. 

7 93. 

8 27, 96. 

9 94. 

10 21, 94. 

11 21,228. 

12 21. 



1 Timothy. 

i. 17 165. 

ii. 11-14 111. 

iii. 6 129. 

,, 9, 16 3. 

iv. 1-3 196. 

vi. 15 165. 

16 30. 

,, 20 27. 

,, 21 42. 



2 Timothy. 

i. 10 289. 

ii. 12 132. 

14 27. 

16,17 27. 

18 26, 287. 

20,21 67. 

1-8 196. 

12 .182. 

15,16 0, 313, 

314. 

17 5. 

1 54, 128, 

187. 

2 187. 

3, 4 196. 

8 54, 128. 



Titus. 

i. 2 194, 211. 

3 194. 

,, 10-14 196. 

ii. 4, 5 111. 

11 21. 

,,11-14 128, 149 

iii. 5 48. 



Philemon. 

9-11 272. 



INDEX. 



433 



Hebrews. 

i. 1 47, 192, 

205. 

2 36, 47, 

222. 
3... . 36. 

4 36. 

5 275. 

6 35. 

14 166, 246. 

ii. 3, 4 121. 

5 246. 

,, 8, 9 36. 

., 9-18 68. 

,, 14 90. 

,, 16 36. 

.,16-18 116. 

iii. 3 113. 

4 112. 

6 202. 

, 8-11 113. 

13 55. 

,, 14 202. 

,, 18,19 174, 273. 

iv. 1 273. 

2 174, 273. 

, 3,4 114. 

9 18, 55. 

,, 10 18. 

11 18, 55, 

202. 

12 105. 

,, 13 97. 

,, 15 69, 116. 

V. 4, 6 283. 

7 70. 

,, 8, 9 69. 

,, 13 54. 

vi. 1. 2 151. 

vii. 3 284. 

6 206. 

8 284. 

12 54,284. 

,,13,14 54. 

,, 28 283. 

viii. 5 98. 

,, 6, 7 229. 

13 55. 

ix. 9 98. 

13 229. 

,, 15-17 216. 

,, 22 105, 145. 

,,23,24 98. 

26 193. 

28 42, 128. 

X. 1 98. 

3 229. 

4 145. 

,, 4-14 105. 

,,10,12 116. 

,, 14 105, 115. 



Hebrews — continued. 

X. 19.20 140. 

„ 25 17. 

,,26-37 244. 

,,38,39 202. 

xi. 1 48, 104, 

146. 

3 36, 105. 

5 108. 

6 48, 105. 

7 109, 256. 

8 208. 

,, 8-16 212. 

9 238. 

,, 10 208. 

„ 13 205, 239. 

., 16... . 212. 

,, 17 206, 234. 

,, 18,19 234. 

22 253. 

,, 23 256. 

,, 24 256. 

,, 26 108, 193, 

256. 

27 256. 

,, 39 205, 239. 

40 205, 239. 

xii. 15-17 244. 

„ 22 232. 

24 106. 

xiii. 20 198. 



James. 

i. 13 69. 

,, 14 62. 

,, 15 61. 

,, 18 47, 123, 

184. 

„ 27 149. 

ii. 5 132. 

,, 17-24 68. 

„ 21-24 237. 

iii. 15,17 8:5. 

iv. 4 61, 85. 

V. 14 91. 



1 Peter. 

i. 10-12 179. 

2 241. 

4 155. 

5 70. 

,, 5-7 67. 

,, 7-13 54. 

22 48, 241. 

23 47, 99, 

122. 



^Qt&V— continued. 

ii. 1-6 111. 

iii. 3-6 46. 

4 128. 

19 109. 

21 78. 

iv. 17,18 291. 

V. 2, 3 144. 



2 Peter. 

i. 1 172. 

2-4 10, 47. 

4 122. 

16 139. 

19-21 125, 294. 

ii. 4 9. 

iii. 2 295. 

9 241. 

16,17 295. 



1 John. 

i. 5 136. 

ii. 15... ...83. 

iii. 2 37. 

4 61. 

8 90, 100, 

105. 
9 47_ 

\\ 12''.'.'.'m, 105. 

,, 15 105, 134. 

,,19-22 77. 

iv. 6 143. 

,,17,18 131. 

V. 4 54. 

6 148. 

,, 6-10 121. 

10 74, 105. 



Jude. 

3 6. 59, 

102. 
6... . 9. 

11 108. 

14, 15 108. 



Revelation. 

i. 1 55, 324, 

351. 

7 351, 408. 

18 181. 



434 



INDEX. 



Revelation — continued. 

ii. 6-15 28. 

7 53. 

,,26,27 13, 413. 

iii. 7. 8 190. 

,, 17 49, 127. 

,. 18 79, 352. 

,, 20 104. 

,, 21 13, 68. 

iv. 3, 5 139. 

8 135. 

9 12, 16, 

135. 

„ 10 10, 12, 

16, 135. 

V. 9, 10 13. 17, 

135. 

vi. 10 11, 321. 

vii. 14-17 353. 

viii. 12 319,328. 

ix. 1-11 342. 

X. 7 332. 

xi. 2 311, 320, 

327, 353. 

„ 4 126. 

5 315. 

7 308. 

8 103. 

,, 8-12 322. 

„ 10 314, 332. 

,, 11 342. 

15 41, 124, 

272. 

,,15-19 332. 

18 41, 102, 

218, 293. 

xii. 1 92, 95. 

„ 2 24. 

,. 3-5 24, 92. 

,, 6 92. 

7 97, 315. 



Revelation— cMz^mwecZ. 

xii. 8 315. 

9 92, 315. 

,,10-17 92. 

„ 17 315. 

xiii. 1 307, 318. 

„ 2 93. 

„ 3 319. 

4 93. 

„ 6 96. 

7 96, 308. 

8 114. 

,, 11 93, 96, 

318. 

,, 14 96,319. 

15 96, 318. 

xiv. 1-3 353. 

„ 1-5 267. 

19 218, 399. 

'„ 20 218, 341, 

399. 

XV. 2-4 267. 

8 41. 

xvi. 5 334. 

„ 6 100, 323. 

334. 

7 334. 

,, 13 93, 341. 

,, 14 341. 

15 104, 218, 

295, 341. 

16 94, 341. 

18 340. 

,, 19-21 341. 

xvii. 8 114. 

,, 11 96, 306. 

14 202,221, 

351, 381. 

xviii. 6 100. 

,, 24 96. 



Revelation — continued. 

xix. 7, 8 49, 353, 

381. 
11,14... ...94. 

11-21 221. 

17,18 381. 

19 351, 381. 



20. 

21. 

1. 

1-10. 

2. 
4. 



.96, 322. 
.351, 381. 
.181. 
415. 
.72. 
.11, 13,41. 



5 27. 

6 157, 

8 383. 

11-15 11. 



416. 



12. 
14. 

1. 
1-7. 

2. 

3. 
4. 
5. 



,114. 
.118. 
.163. 
.155. 
.92, 93, 
353. 

.150, 416. 
90, 150. 
.90, 150, 
416. 



6 247. 

9-11 353. 

12-14.. 
17.. 

27.. 
2.. 
3.. 



218. 



,136, 

353. 

114. 

64. 

90, 109, 

150, 155. 

104. 



/ 

14 8. 

16 285. 

17 119, 144. 

20 104. 



APPENPIX. 



Reference has been made, in notes appended to the Preface, to Dr. 
Thomas' wonderful political prevision on the basis of the prophetic 
word. A few words may be added here on the progress of the world 
during the past fifty years in the direction definitely anticipated by 
the expositions of Elpis Israel. 

As has been abundantly shown therein, the prophets delineate 
the uprise in " the latter-days " of two great Rival Empires of the 
North and South ; the leading powers in each being Russia and 
Britain respectively. Glancing back upon the developments of these 
rival powers during the last half-century, we cannot but be impressed 
with the truth declared in the Scriptures that " the Most High ruleth 
in the kingdoms of men " to the working out of His jDurpose in 
the earth. 

" The King of the North," or Russo-Assyrian Power of the latter- 
days, has steadily continued its slow and resistless march during the 
past fifty years, fully illustrating the career of " the proud man " of 
Habakkuk's prophecy (ch. ii. 5), who " keepeth not at home, but 
enlargeth his desire as sheol, and is as death and cannot be satisfied, 
but gatheretli unto him all nations, and heapetli unto him all peoples.^' 
Sir Edward Dicey, in the leading article in the Nineteenth Century for 
December, 1903, entitled "The Rival Empires," paints a sombre 
picture of Russian aggression, without in any way designing to 
illustrate the prophets. Indeed he declares that, as concerning " the 
supervision of Providence " in the matter, he feels himself " utterly 
incompetent to express an opinion one way or the other." But he 
illustrates it all the same. He points out that the Crimean War 
(anticipated by Elpis Israel — pp. 104, 348, &c.), did nothing to cripple 
Russia, and that the Congress of Berlin, " the last united effort made 
by Europe to set limits to the advance of Russia," has been entirely 
abortive, for, during the past quarter of a century, " every one of 
these limitations have been set aside." Further, that Germany, France, 
Austria, Italy, Spain, Belgium, and Holland are so fettered by various 
political necessities as to entirely dispose of " the idea of any Continental 
coalition, either directly or indirectly of an anti-Russian character." 



436 APPENDIX. 

Speaking of the beginning of Russian headship in Europe, Sir 
Edward says : "It was at Olmutz, in 1850, that the Czar Nicholas 
imposed his will on Austria and Prussia in respect of the Hesse-Cassel 
constitutional controversy, and thereby vindicated his claim to be 
considered as the Supreme Arbiter of Europe." From 1850 to 1899 
is a good stride, but at the end of it we see Czar Nicholas II. figuring 
as Supreme Arbiter in the celebrated Peace Congress at the Hague, 
the true inwardness of which Sir Edward very clearly discerns. 

Russian supremacy in the Balkan States is too notorious now to 
need more than a passing mention, and it is admitted on all hands 
that she has Constantinople in the hollow of her hand. Similarly in 
the Far East Russia is pursuing a policy of aggression that is at the 
present time threatening the peace of the world. In this connection 
it is to be remarked that the Asiatic development of Russia, and her 
great railway enterprise in Siberia, is an entirely modern development. 
When Elpis Israel was written, Russian domination of Eurojoe was 
clearly foreseen and expounded in the most interesting section dealing 
with " Gogue and Magogue " (p. 383). But the full extent of her 
Asiatic dominion was not perceived. Looking back now we perceive 
that *' Magog Lie," or the Scythas of the Greeks, indicates an Asiatic as 
well as a European dominion. Ptolomey, in his map about a.d. 150, 
delineates " Scythia intra Imaum " and " Scythia extra Imaum " ; that 
is, Scythia this side the Imaus mountains (of Central Asia), and Scythia 
beyond the Imaus. The first would denote roughly Russia in Europe 
and Western Asia, while the second points indefinitely North East in 
the direction of MongoHa, Manchuria and Siberia. These Asiatic 
Scythae must not be left out of the argument (see Elpis Israel, p. 390, 
middle paragraph). Asa matter of fact " Gog of the Land of Magog " 
is now seen to represent a great dominion stretching right across 
Europe and Asia from the North Sea to the Pacific Ocean. And it is 
not a little significant that Col. Conder, in his lecture on "The Future 
of Palestine" (1892), should, in connection with some remarks on Har- 
Megiddon, quietly argue as to the best line of " defence of southern 
Palestine from a Scythian invasion " in the future ! 

Similarly, the "King of the South" or British-Egyptian Power 
of the latter days has been the subject of a vast development during 
the past half-century. The British occupation of Egypt was explicitly 
foreseen by Elpis Israel (pages 405-6). But the full extent of Britain's 
Empire, and the final grouping of " All the young lions thereof," 
was of course hidden from view. The past fifty years, however, have 
greatly elucidated matters. The Revolt of Arabi Pasha was followed 
by the withdrawal of the French, and the occupation of Egypt by 
the British in 1882. The fall of Khartoum and the death of Gen. 
Gordon, that so raised public opinion in 1885, has been followed 
by the re-conquest of the Soudan and the re-taking of the city by 
Lord Kitchener in 1898. Thus Britain is more firmly estabUshed 
upon " the rivers of Cush," the Atbara, Blue and White Niles, etc. 
When Dr. Thomas wrote Elpis Israel, his attention was mainly con- 
fined to the eastern Cush, and the great Indian Dominion beyond 
the Euphrates and Tigris (pages 403-4). Now, however, by the events 



APPENDIX. 437 

above alluded to, and by the more recent Boer War, still further to 
the South, Britain has become more conspicuously than ever before 
" the land shadowing with wings which is beyond the rivers of 
Gush " (Isa. xviii. 1). It has also been pointed out by an esteemed 
fellow-labourer, that as no creature flies with an odd number of wings, 
we might regard these great military operations, in conjunction with 
Australian federation as well, as the perfecting of the four wings of 
the Empire, namely its American, Asian, African and x\ustrahan 
Dominions. 

Similarly, when Dr. Thomas wrote Elpis Israel, the Indian 
Empire looming so large before him, and the Australian, Canadian, 
and African dominions, being all still hid in the future, his attention 
was confined to the Semitic " Sheba and Dedan," who, in the tenth 
generation of Shem's sons, gave their names to Arabian countries. 
But, looking back now, we notice that in the third generation of 
Ham's sons, " Sheba and Dedan " figui*e, connecting their names with 
the African Gush, or Ethiopia, where now Britain is so securely settled. 
Indeed Sir John Tenniel has gone so far, as to combine the elements 
of John Bull, the British Lion, and the Sphinx, in a cartoon in 
Punch, November, 1898, entitled " A fixture," representing the 
dominion of John Bull in the land of the pyramids. By and bye 
this will need revising, for it is written in Dan. xi. 42, that " The land 
of Egypt shall not escape " the King of the North. But, for the 
present at any rate, for " Sheba and Dedan " of Ezek. xxxviii. 13 we 
may read British power on both sides of the Red Sea. 

So also with regard to " the lions of Tarshish " ; when Dr. Thomas- 
wrote 50 years ago, the most that was visible was the Indian contingent 
thereof. Now, however, it is different, and the prophetic phrase, " All 
the young lions thereof " (of Tarshish), is seen to have application to 
the four wings of the great dominion already defined. The EgyjDtian 
campaign of 1882, the Boer War of 1899-1900, and AustraHan 
federation have all helped to reveal " the young lions." Sir John 
Tenniel's cartoons in Punch, March, 1891 (on the occasion of Sir Henry 
Parkes' suggestion of Australian federation), and June, 1897 (on the 
occasion of the great Naval Review at Spithead, in the year of tlie 
Diamond Jubilee), both graphically represent " the young lions" of the 
prophetic imagery of Ezekiel nearly six hundred years before Ghrist. 

Turkish decline, which is the subject of the Lord's prophecy of 
" the sixth vial " (Rev. xvi. 12-16), has progressed steadily during tlie 
past half-century. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877 resulted in a 
further great loss of territory to Turkey, including Roumania, Servia, 
Bulgaria, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, Batoum, etc. Cyprus 
was ceded to Britain in 1878, the Egyptian insurrection of 1882 led 
to the British occupation of Egypt. In 1883 came the annexation of 
Tunis by the French. The Armenian atrocities of 1895 and 1896 were 
followed in 1897 by the Greco-Turkish War, in which, though " the 
Sick Man " recovered sufficiently to triumph over his tiny rival, he 
was not permitted by his stronger neighbours to enjoy the fruits of 
victory. They even installed Prince G-eorge of Greece as Governor- 
General of Crete, whence also the shadow of Turkish domination has 



438 APPENDIX. 

departed. In fact, as Sir Edward Dicey points out in the article 
aforesaid, though " the refusal of Lord Beaconsfield to sanction the 
Treaty of San Stefano has prolonged the nominal independence of 
Turkey, yet, owing to the indifference of Europe and to the 
disintegration of the Ottoman Empire under a ruler of supreme 
incapacity, Russia has made herself the virtual ruler of Turkey in 
Europe." On page 360 Dr. Thomas reckons the setting up of the 
abomination of desolation as dating from the Justinian epoch, 1,290 
years from which ends in 1821, but it seems probable that it is more 
correctly to be dated from the Phocan epoch of 606-10, 1,290 years 
from which brings us to 1896-1900, when, as we see, the disintegration 
of the Turkish Empire is much more advanced, and its European 
power reduced almost to a vanishing point. 

Concurrently with the decline of the Turk, comes the hopeful and 
beautiful sign of the uprise of a Jewish State. When Elpis Israel 
was written there was no sign whatever of that " pre-adventual colon- 
ization of the Holy Land " by the Jews, which its author so clearly 
discerned from the prophecy of Ezekiel. During the last half-century, 
however, anti-Semitic excesses in almost all the States of Europe 
have forced the situation. In a small way Jewish colonization has been 
attempted almost from 1860. The survey of Palestine in the seventies 
b}^ the Palestine Exploration Society was another sign of the times, 
but it was not until 1895 that the Jewish Question became a first- 
class one in the world. In that year Dr. Herzl published his pam- 
phlet, "A Jewish State, an attempt at the modern solution of the 
Jewish Question." Out of this arose the movement that is now so 
well known over all the earth as Zionism. The aim is to secure in 
Palestine " a publicly and legally assured home " in which the 
Israelites of the second exodus may find rest from their oppressors 
and found a new Jewish State. As a result of this the first Zionist 
Congress was held at Basle, Switzerland, in 1897, and six of these 
Jewish parliaments have now been held ; the fourth being in London 
in August, 1900, and indicating the friendship prophetically decreed, 
between " the land shadowing with wings " and " scattered and 
peeled " nation of Israel (Isa. xviii.). This phase of matters has beeii 
even more clearly revealed, in the sixth Congress held at Basle in 1903. 
The British Government offered the Jews a grant of land in British 
East Africa, with power to form a small Jewish State under British 
suzerainty. This will, of course, be but a stepping stone towards the 
re-settlement of -the Jews in Palestine, as defined by the prophets. 

Time would fail to trace the developments of the past half- 
century in the various other notable channels of European history in 
their bearing upon the signs of the times. The foregoing remarks 
may be regarded as hints to intelligent seekers after the Kingdom of 
God, and proofs that in this book the way of God is rightly 
indicated. 



CHRONIKON HEBRAIKON; 



CHRONOLOGY Z SCRIFrURES: 



AS CONTAINED IN THEIR 



SET FORTH WITH THE CLEARNESS AND SIMPLICITY WHICH BELONG TO THE TRUTH. 

By JOHN THOMAS, M.D., 

Author of ^^ Elpis Israel," ^^ Eureka: an Expoaition of tJie Apocalijpse," d:c. 



"Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, Tlie morning- 
cometh, and also the night. If ye will inquire, inquiie ye." — Isaiah. 

"It shall be for a time, times, and an half. Then said I, Daniel, O 
my Lord, what shall be the end of these?" 



BIRMINGHAM : 
C. C. Walker, 21, Hendon Road, Sparkhill. 

1903. 



CONTENTS, 



Prefatory Remarks 

First Period : From the Creation, to the Delage 

1. The Millennary Week of 7,000 years 

2. The Chronological Chain. 

Second Period : The Postdiluvian Patriarchal 

1. Abraham's Age at Terah's Death ... 

2. Shem and Melchizedec the same person 

3. The Time of Joseph's Birth 

4. The Birth of Moses 

5. The Birth of Joshua 

6. The 430 years to the Exodus 

7. Computations concerning the Exodus 
Third Period : From the Exodus to The Judges 
1. " The Great Chronological Gordian Knot "... 

Fourth Period : The Time of the Judges " until Samuel the Prophet " 

1. Joshua's Age at the Exodus 

2. The Time of the Judges ... ' ... 

Fifth Period : From Samuel as Prophet to the Foundation of the Temple 
1. A Reign of Forty Years Impossible for Saul 

Sixth Period : The Temple Era from the Foimdation to the Destruction bv 
Nebuchadnezzar 

1. The Number 430 



PAGE 
5 

9 

10 
10 

12 
13 
13 
13 
14 
14 
14 
15 
16 
16 

19 
20 

20 

22 
22 

24 

25 



CONTENTS. 

Seventh Period : From the Destruction of the Temple to the Decree for 
Building of Jerusalem ... 

1. Interesting Dates of Nebuchadnezzar's Reign 

2. The Medo-Persian Dynasty 

3. " The Third Year of Cyrus " 

4. The Evening-Morning Period 

5. The Four Decrees 

Eighth Period : P'rom the Beginning of Daniel's Seventy Weeks to the 
Crucifixion 

The Decree of Phocas 

Daniel's Seventieth Week ... 

1. Improved Translation of the Text... 

2. Speculations of Chronologists on the Seventy Weeks 

Chronological Summary 

Ninth Period : From the Crucifixion to the End of the Evening-Morning 
Period of 2,400 Years ... 

Summary of the Great Millennary Week 
Appendix ... ... 



page 

28 
28 
29 
29 
29 
33 

35 
36 

36 
36 
37 

38 

39 
40 
41 



PREFATORY REMARKS. 



Much of Scripture is a record of past events, or History. This story 
of the past informs the reader in what manner, to what extent, and to 
what time the promises of the Deity made to the fathers have been 
fulfilled. By this information light is thrown upon the future, by 
which its coming events may be discovered. The outline of this future 
is correctly delineated in no other national or private record than the 
Scriptures. The writers of these were at once historians and prophets. 
They not only recorded the past with inimitable conciseness, ingenuity, 
and truthfulness, but they sketched out events with wonderful 
precision as to their times and seasons, which should be providentially 
developed in the course of a multitude of ages and generations. 
Hence their writings naturally resolve themselves into History and 
Prophecy : the former a record of the past ; the latter, a sketch of the 
future. 

But History and Prophecy are a body without eyes in default of 
Chronology and Geography, which have, therefore, been termed " the 
eyes of history," because of the intimate connection subsisting between 
these branches of knowledge. Hence, it has been well observed that 
" in order to make any regular progress in learning, some acquaintance 
with chronology is indispensable. To pretend to read history, the 
source and treasure of civil as well as sacred knowledge, without 
attending to chronology, would be to little or no purpose. To 
chronology history owes its use and beauty." 

Deeply impressed with the truth of these remarks, I have con- 
cluded to perfect previous chronological sketches in their revision for 
the reader's use. Many into whose hands Elpis Israel and Eureka 
may come, it is presumable may know but little of past times and 
events ; for their benefit, therefore, and to refresh the recollection of 
the better informed, 1 have appended this little treatise, to which I 
have given the title of Chronikon Hebraikon, because it treats of 
Hebrew Periods. I have endeavoured to simplify the subject as much 
as possible, and to strip it of all the theories and speculations of 
chronologists, who have created difficulties where none exist, discussed 
all shades and forms of error, but left the truth untouched. The great 
question with the reader should be, not what profane writers of 
heathen antiquity, and theorists of the Apostacy may teach ; but what 
saith the scripture, and how is what it saith to be understood ? 



b PREFATORY REMARKS. 

In solving this question, it is true, there is not much scope for 
a display of " ripe scholarship," which discusses everything and 
settles nothing. It affords no room for learned talk about Hermes 
Trismagistis, Sanchoniathon, the great Chaldeo-Babylonish historian 
Berosus, Confucius, and all other like confusionists, who have 
darkened the human mind by a multitude of " words without know- 
ledge." The profane writers of ancient and modern times are all 
unreliable, according to the confession of their own oracles. " Who- 
ever," says Sir William Jones, " in those early ages, expects a certain 
epocha, unqualified with about or nearly, will be greatly dis- 
appointed." 

This Ghronikon, however, of mine is not compiled upon the quali- 
fying principles of about or nearly.^' This will be evident if the 
reader consult the " references " given. I only accept the dates of 
the profane when they harmonise with the scripture in its historical 
and prophetical periods and dates. Thus, it matters not to me how 
many years profane writers may reckon to the interval between 
" the going forth of a commandment for causing to return and 
build Jerusalem " in the 20th of Artaxerxes, to " the cutting off 
of Messiah the Prince " by crucifixion. They may make it 500 
years, or 487 years, or any other duration they please. Understand- 
ing how to read the testimony in Dan. ix. 24-26, I know that 
such computations are infalJibly wrong. Anything short or in 
excess of 490 years must be incorrect, for seventy times seven was 
the period decreed. 

The knotty questions untied and expounded in this Ghronikon 
are : 

1. Stephen's chronology of Abraham's return to Canaan after 
Terah's death (Acts vii. 4) ; 

2. The Age of Joshua at the invasion of Canaan, and. consequent 
time of his administration ; 

3. The time elapsing between the death of Joshua and the 
beginning of the time of the Judges ; 

4. The ending of the time of the Judges ; 

5. The duration of Saul's reign ; 

6. The 480 years of 1 Kings vi. 1, and Paul's chronology in 
Acts xiii.; 

7. The 2,200, 2,300, or 2,400 of Dan. viii. 14 ; 

8. The Seventy Weeks in their termination ; 

9. Ezekiel's 430 days. 

■■•' " About . . . 450 years " (Acts xiii. 20). — PuhUsher. 



PREFATORY REMARKS. 7 

The sixth of the above items is styled " The Great Chronological 
Gordian Knot,^^ which has proved an insoluble mystery to all chrono- 
logists. The reader will find that the Ghronikon unties it with the 
greatest ease ; whereby the Scriptures are vindicated, and Paul shown 
to teach in perfect harmony with them. 

It may be remarked here, that an idea prevails, that the 
Millennium, or Great Sabbatic Chiliad will commence when the world 
has attained exactly the age of 6,000 years. In conformity with this 
opinion, speculative theologists have sought to increase the years of 
the world's age in order to approximate to their own times, as nearly 
as possible, the commencement of the Great Sabbatism. 

Miller staked his whole theory upon the notion that the world 
was 6,000 years old in 1843. But time has proved his computation, 
and therefore his theory, to be utterly erroneous. 

In 1859, Shimeall, in " Our Bible Ghronology," p. 182, announced 
that the world will be 6,000 j^ears old in 1868, and that the " year 
A.M. 6001 will be the ushering in of the Great Sabbatism, spoken 
of in Rev. xx. 1-6." Thus, he fixes the commencement of the 
Millennium to the a.d. 1869 ; which he assigns as the limit of the 
" unparalleled ' tribulation ' predicted by our Lord." But the current 
three years will not afford scope for such a tribulation. Mr. Shimeall 
has made a mistake. His chronological speculations have misled him. 
The world will not be 6,000 years old until a.d. 1910, which is 44 
years from 1866. 

But there is reason to believe that the Millennium will com- 
mence a few years before the world attains to 6,000 years. It is 
apocalyptically revealed, that it will end at the " Little Season," 
which comes within the limit of the Millennarv Week of 7,000 years 
from the Creation — " after the 1,000 years are fulfilled, Satan must be 
loosed a little season " (Rev. xx. 3, 7). This puts the beginning of 
the Millennium back into the Sixth Chiliad, and before its termina- 
tion, as many years as may constitute the Little Season. If this 
consists of four years, then the Millennium will begin four years 
before the world is 6,000 years old — in a.m. 5996 ; and consequently 
end A.M. 6996, or a.d. 2906. Thus, the end of the Little Season will 
synchronize with the end of the a.m. 7000, which is equivalent to 
the A.D. 2910. 

The " unparalleled tribulation " is to precede the Millennium, and 
will, of course, require time for its development. In Micah vii. 15, 
the period for performing the truth and mercy sworn, or covenanted, 
to Abraham and Jacob is chronologized by " the days of Israel's com- 



8 PREFATORY REMARKS. 

ing out of the land of Egypt,^'^^ which, every reader of scripture 
knows was a period of 40 years. The " unparalleled tribulation " of 
Mark xiii. 19, 20 belonged to the end of the Mosaic Dispensation, and 
has long since passed away : but the " time of trouble " foretold by 
Daniel and Jeremiah, and styled " the unparalleled tribulation " by 
Mr. Shimeall, is a pre-millennial chronological period of 40 years. 
This, his chronological scheme, as also the schemes of all others, I 
believe, altogether ignores. There can be no Millennium until the 
judicial work of these 40 years is accomplished. They are the period 
of the Seventh Vial ; and " no one can enter into the Nave until the 
Seven Plagues of the Seven Angels " of the Vials, " may have been 
fulfilled " (Apoc. XV. 8). 

Chronologists make no allowance of time for the last of these 
plagues. With them, this " Time of the Ekd " is left to chance. 
" We have no chronological data," say they, " by which to determine 
its length." True ; they have none ; but only becaase they are un- 
acquainted with what exists. The whole world of powerful kingdoms 
has to be revolutionized. The governments, aristocracies, hierarchies, 
and democracies, have all to be broken up ; the nations, emancipated 
from these destroyers, illuminated and blessed in Abraham and his 
seed. And to accomplish all this, theologists and chronologists, with 
their " science falsely so called," crowd us into an unchronological 
period between a.m. 6000, and the year after, a.d. 1869 ! This is doing 
the work up in a flash, which none but the spiritual inebriates of the 
clerical kingdom could for a moment admit. 

Hudson City, N.J., U.S.A., 
November' 20, 1865. 



8ee footnote Elpis Israel, page 409. 



THE WORLD'S AGE 
SCEIPTURALLY DEMONSTRATED. 



A.M. 



FIRST PERIOD. 

FROM THE CREATION TO THE DELUGE. 

EMBRACES 16 56 YEARS. 

Names and Events. Years. References. 



B.C. 





Creation 




Gf 


m. 1. 2 


4089 


130 


Adam aged at the birth of Seth 








130 


, V. 3 .. 






3959 


235 


Seth 








105 


, V. 6 .. 




.. 


3854 


325 


Enos 










90 


, V. 9 .. 







3764 


395 


Cainan 










70 


, V. 12 .. 




.. 


3694 


460 


Mahalaleel 










65 


, V. 15.. 






3629 


622 


.Tared 










162 


, V. 18.. 






3467 


687 


Enoch 










65 


, V. 21 .. 






3402 


874 


Methuselah 










187 


, V. 25 .. 






3215 


1056 


Lamech 










182 


, v. 28.. 






3033 


1656 


Noah at the Flood 










600 


, viii. 13, 14 





2433 






1656 







NOTES. 

1. Chronology, in relation to history, is the Science of Time, or 
the ascertaining the correct dates of past events, and the proper 
arrangement of them. 

2. It is of two kinds, sacred and profane. 

3. Sacred Chronology is divided into two parts, the Jiistoric and 
prophetic. 

4. For onr data in sacred chronology we are entirely dependent 
on the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. 

5. Great confusion exists in determining the true epochs of the 
Creation, the Deluge, and the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, 
among those who are not satisfied with the Hebrew original. In 
Dr. Hales' Chronology may be found a hundred and twenty different 
opinions, among some 300, on the epoch of the Creation, dating back- 
ward from the birth of Christ. 

6. Out of twenty-nine computations of the World's age before 
me, I find only one that approximates to the truth, and that is the 



10 CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

reckoning of tlie Chinese Jews, who make the world 4,079 years at the 
Nativity. This is within ten years of the truth. 

7. The wide discrepancies of chronologists are not owing to a 
defect in the data of the record, but to the want of a proper knowledge 
of the subjects treated of in the Scriptures. 

1.— The Millennary Week of 7,000 Years. 

8. All things are ordered by the Deity, who has assigned to the 
SiN-CoNSTiTUTiON OF Things upon earth, a limited and definite duration 
of 7,000 years, commencing from the Creation, and ending with the 
destruction of " the last enemy Death." 

9. This 7,000 years is the Great Demiurgic Week of that Creation 
which continues eternally and unchanged ; and is typified by the 
smaller demiurgic week familiarly known as the Mosaic. 

10. It is a very ancient tradition that, as the Deit37- employed Six 
Days in fitting up the earth for the indwelling of sinners, and ceased 
creating on the Seventh, which He hallowed ; so He will consume 
Six Days of a thousand years each in preparing it for the inhabita- 
tion of saints ; and ceasing therefrom, will hallow the seventh period 
of a thousand years as " a season and time " of rest and blessedness 
for the regenerated world. Paal evidently endorses this traditional 
view in Heb. iv. 9. 

11. The Millennium is the Sabbath Day of the previous Six 
Thousand years. 

2.— The Chronological Chain. 

12. The Chronological Chain of Scripture is Historico-Prophetic, 
From the Creation to the Deluge is purely historical ; but from the 
First of Nebuchadnezzar to the First of Darius the Mede, and from 
the 20th of Artaxerxes to the Crucifixion, historico-prophetical. 
These periods of 70 and 490 years respectively, were expressly fore- 
told ; and the years intervening between the beginning and the end 
of each, corroborate each other : so that by the mutual aid of sacred 
history and prophecy, I have been enabled to prove all my positions. 

In one place, Dan. viii. 14, I believe the original text has been 
deliberately corrupted by the Jews— 2,400 having been shortened 
to 2,300 — in order to suit the period to their notions concerning 
Antiochus. In no other place is there any reason to complain of 
unfaithulness in the original. 

13. But few generations intervened between Adam and Moses. 
Seven consecutive historic links only, were required to bridge this 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 11 

interval. Whence had Adam all his knowledge ? From revelation. 
All he knew antecedent to observation and experience much have been 
communicated by the Deity. What he knew he could impart to 
Lamech, the father of Noah, who was 56 years contemporary with 
Adam. Noah was the third link of the seven-fold chain, and con- 
versed with his father 595 years. Noah was 58 years con- 
temporary with Abram. Then comes Noah's son Shem, who as the 
fourth link, was contemporary with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the 
last of whom was 50 years old at the end of Shem's earthly career. 
These fathers were the fifth. After them Joseph, the sixth, who died 
74 years before the birth of Moses, and 154 years before the Exodus. 
And lastly, the Elders in Egypt to the time of Moses. 

14. The following extract, mostly from Hales' Chronology, sup- 
plies an example of the widely different opinions of Chronologists on 
the epoch of Creation, dating backward from the Nativity. 



BIBLICAL TEXTS AND VERSIONS. 

B.C. 

The Septuagint Computation... ... ... ... .. ... 5586 

Samaritan Text ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 4305 

Hebrew Text, as interpreted by chronologists ... ... ... ... 4161 

English Bible „ „ „ ... ... ... ... 4004 

" JEWISH " COI^/IPUTATIONS. 



Josephus, according to 



piayfair 5555 



Jackson 
I Hales 



Universal Histoi 



■**Chinese Jews 

Vulgar Jewish Compiitation 



5481 
5402 

4098 
4079 
3760 



DIVINES" OF THE LAODICEAN APOSTACY. 



Clemens Alexandrinus ... ... ... ... ... ... 5624 

Dr. Hales... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 5411 

Origen, A.D. 230 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 4830 

Usher ... 4004 

Luther ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 3961 

Shimeall ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 4132 



12 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



SECOND PERIOD. 

THE POSTDILUVIAN PATRIARCHAL 



EMBRACES 807 YEARS, 



Names and Events. 



Yean 



References. 



B.C. 



1656 
1658 
1693 
1723 

1757 
1787 
1819 
1849 
1878 
1948 
2006 

2023 

2033 



2034 
2047 



2048 
2083 



2085 
2088 
2108 
2123 
2148 
2158 

2171 



2199 
2228 
2229 
2238 

2255 

2309 
2383 



2423 



2463 



The Deluge ; Sliem 98, and lives 502 years after 

Arphaxad born two years after the Flood 

Salah born, Arphaxad being thirty-five 

Eber born, after whom "the fathers" are called 
"Hebrews" ... 

Peleg born, in whose days the earth was divided... 

Reu 

-ierug- 

Nahor 

Terah 

Abram born, Terah being .seventy 

Noah dies 350 years after the Flood, aged 950 
years; Abram 58 

Abram, being seventy-five, leaves Charran 

Abram's faith counted to him for righteousness . . . 

Abram marries Hagar, being ei(;7it(/-_/i ye 

Ail-Shaddai confirms His covenant to Abram 
430 years before the promulgation of the 
Mosaic Law 

Ishmael born the year after 

Abram's name changed to Abraham, and circumci- 
sion instituted as the token of the confirmed cov- 
enant thirteen years after, he being ninety -nine 

Sodom destroyed 

Isaac born next year, Abraham 100 ; Terah 170 ;... 

After this, " Abraham sojourned in the Philistines' 
land many days " 

Terah dies aged 205 ; Isaac 35 ; Abraham 135 ; 
Sarah 125 

"And afterwards KaiCEtdev, after that his father 
was dead," Abraham removed him into the 
land of Moreh 

Sarah dies two years after Terah, aged 127 

Isaac marries Rebecca three years after, aged 40 

Esau and Jacob born ; Abraham 160 ; Isaac 60... 

Abraham dies 15 years after, aged 175 ; Ishmael 89 

Esau marries Judith and Bashemath, aged 40 

Shem ceases from among men 35 years after 
Abraham's death 

Ishmael dies, aged 137, having overlived Abraham 
48years; Jacob 63 

Jacob visits Laban, aged 77 

After 20 years with Laban, Jacob returns to Isaac 
and remains with him till his deatli 

Joseph born at Laban's, Jacob being 91 

Isaac dies 180 years old ; Jacob 120 

Joseph 30 years old when he stands before Pharaoh 
Jacob goes down into Egypt in the second year of 

famine, being 130 yea rs old ; Joseph 39 
Jacob dies in Egypt after residing there 17 years, 

aged 147; Joseph 56 

Joseph dies aged 110 years.being after Jacob's death 

Moses born 74 years after the death of Joseph. 

Moses being 80 years old at the Exodus, which 

was 430 years after the Confirmation of the 

Covenant to Abram, he was therefore born 

after Joseph's death 

Joshua bom 110 years before the time of the 
Judges who succeeded him ; he was therefore 

40 years old at the Exodus 

Moses flies from Egypt into the land of Midian 

from the face of Pharaoh ... 
The Exodus from Egypt; Moses 80 ; Caleb 40 ; 
Joshua 40. The 430 years of sojourning " in 
Canaan and Egypt " end 

Number of years from the Deluge to the Exodus... 



10 



Gen. xi. 10, 11 

" 12 



807 



14 

16 

18; X. 25 

20 

22 

24 

26 

ix. 28, 29. 
xii. 4 
XV. 5, 6. 
xvi. 3 



XV. ; Gal. iii. 17. 
xvi. 16 



„ xvii. 1, 5 
„ xviii. 10, 16. 



„ xxi. 34. 

„ xi. 32; xvii. 17 



Acts vii. 4. 
1. xxiii. 1. 
XXV. 20. 
26 
7 
xxvi. 34. 

xi. 10, 11. 

XXV. 17. 
xxviii. 6. 

xxxi. 18, c 
XXX. 25. 
XXXV. 28 
xli. 46. 



2433 
2431 



2366 
2332 
2302 
2270 
2240 
2211 
2141 



2066 
2056 

2055 

2042 
2041 

2006 



1981 



xlvii. 
1.26 ' 



Exod. vii. 7 ; xii, 41 



Josh. xxiv. 29 ; Acts xiii. 
19, 20. 



Acts vii. 33, 30. 

„xiv. 7, 10; Ex. xii. 41. 



1861 



1834 
1780 



1706 



1626 



CHRONOLOay OF THE SCRIPTURES. 13 

NOTES ON THE SECOND PERIOD. 
1. — Abraham's Age at Terah's Death. 

1. Shimeall says that " Abraham was 75 years old at the death of 
Terah in his 205 th year " (Bible Chron. p. 43). I suppose he arrives 
at this conclusion from Acts vii. 4, which says : " Then came he (Abram) 
out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran : and from 
thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land wherein 
ye now dwell." He, in common with others, has been contented with 
the letter of the English Version. This certainly teaches that Abram 
dwelt in Charran till Terah's death ; and as Moses says in Gen. xii. 4, 
that " Abram was 75 years old when he departed out of Haran," Abram, 
of course, could have been only 75 years old when Terah died. But 
chronologists have here overlooked two things : fiy-'st, that the word 
KaKEiQev, rendered '^ from thence " in the text, signifies also " and then,^' 
i.e., "afterwards" (Acts xiii. 21); and secondly, that Abraham not 
only dwelt in Charran till he was 75 years, but that he also afterwards 
" sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days,'' or years (Gen. 
xxi. 34). It was from the land of the Philistines Abraham departed 
on his expedition " into the land of Moriah," for the purpose oF offer- 
ing Isaac " upon one of its mountains." This transaction accomplished, 
he returned to Beersheba in the Philistines' land, and dwelt there 
(Gen. xxii. 19). Now Terah died a.m. 2083, and Sarah, Abraham's 
wife, in a.m. 2085, two years after Terah. After Abraham's return to 
Beersheba in the Philistines' land, he received tidings from bis 
relations in Charran ; when, among other family matters, he doubtless 
heard of Terah's death. See verse 20. After this, he removed " into 
the land of Canaan," to Kirjath Arba, which is Hebron ; and while 
there Sarah died, and was afterwards buried in the covenanted land 
(Gen. xxiii. 1, 2). This is the simple and scriptural statement of the 
case which former writers have not discerned, and in consequence of 
which they make " the call of Abram " a.m. 2083, when he was really 
135 years old, instead of a.m. 2023, when he was only 75. A chronology 
founded on such data must be incorrect. 

2.— Shem and Melchizedec the Same Person. 

2. It nowhere says in Scripture that Shem died. I have, tbere- 
fore, said, " he ceased from among men." I rather conclude that he 
is the Melchi, king of zedek righteousness, of whom Paul says "it is 
testified that he liveth " (Heb. vii. 8) ; and that being alive, he is a 
very fit and proper type of " the Apostle and High Priest of our 
coniession " (Heb. iii. 1). 

3.— The Time of Joseph's Birth. 

3. Joseph was son of Rachel, and born at Laban's, fourteen years 
after Jacob entered his service. Jacob was bom a.m. 2108, and went 
down into Egypt a.m. 2238, being 130 years old. This was in the 



14 CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

second year of famine, or 9 jesivs after Joseph stood before Pharaoh. 
When he stood before the king he was of the same age as Jesus when 
he stood before Yahweh in baptism. Hence, being 39 when Jacob was 
130, Joseph must have been born of Rachel when Jacob was 91. Jacob 
remained six years in Laban's service after Joseph's birth— in all 20 
years. He was therefore 97 when he fled from Laban. From this 
hegira till Joseph was sold into Egypt (aged 17) was eleven years ; 
and from the end of that to the reunion of the family in Egypt in 
the second year of the famine, were 22 years more. 

As Joseph lived till he was 110, and was born when Jacob was 
91, he must have been born a.m. 2199, and have died a.m. 2309, and 
54 years after Jacob's death. 

4.— The Birth of Moses. 

4. Moses was 80 years old at the Exodus (Ex. vii. 7). This 
occurred exactly at the very night of the first passover, 430 years 
after Abram's marriage with Hagar, a.m. 2033. The year of the 
Exodus was therefore a.m. 2463. From this deduct 80 years, and we 
fiod that Moses was born a.m. 2383 ; from which the year of Joseph's 
death, a.m. 2309, being subtracted, we discover that the interval 
between the death of Joseph and the birth of Moses was 74 years. 

5.— The Birth of Joshua. 

5. Joshua was born 110 years befoie the time of the Judges, who 
succeeded him (Josh. xxiv. 29 ; Judges i. 1). The time of the Judges 
was 450 years,-'- beginning at the death of Joshua and ending at the 
establishment of Samuel as prophet of Yahweh, in the 13th of Eli's 
judgeship. Hence Joshua was of the same age as Caleb at the 
Exodus, namely, 40 years (Josh. xiv. 7). He was therefore born 40 
years after Moses, a.m. 2423. 

6.— The 430 Years to the Exodus. 

6. " They shall afflict thy seed 400 years. And also that nation 
(Egypt) whom they shall serve, will I j udge ; and afterwards shall 
they come out with great substance " (Gen. xv. 13, 14). These words 
were spoken to Abram at the Typical Confirmation of the Land- 
Covenant. They gave him to understand that full 400 years of afflic- 
tion would pass before deliverance should be sent to his seed in the 
land of the oppressor. He was not told how soon after the termination 
of the 400 years deliverance should come ; but simply that it should 
be after the lapse of that long period. Moses, in Exod. xii. 40, 41, 
shows us that it was thirty years after the end of the 400 years ; 
which 430 years he terms " the so'purning of Israel's sons." 
He does not say that they spent this 430 years in Egypt, 
as is generally supposed. His words are : " Now the sojourning 
of the sons of Israel (who dwelt in Egypt), was thirty years and 
400 years. And it was at the end of thirty years and four hun- 

■••" " About 450 years " (Acts xiii. 20). — Puhlisher. 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE SOEIPTURES. 



15 



dred years, even the self-same day it was, tliat all the armies of 
Yahweh went out from the land of Egypt." The 430 years were the 
time of " the sojourning,'' not the time of dwelling in Egypt. Moses 
simply affirms that ^' they dwelt in Egypt,'' but does not say how long. 
They were only 225 years in Egpyt ; the rest of the 430 years, that is, 
205 years, was spent by the family as " strangers and pilgrims in the 
land " (Heb. xi. 9, 13). The Septuagint Version of the text adds the 
words Kat ev yq Xavaaj^, and in the land of Ghanaan ; as "the 
sojourning of the sons of Israel (who dwelt in Egypt and in the land 
of Canaan) was " so long a time. But the addition is superfluous, as, 
"the sojourning" and "the dwelling" are not identical. The 
sojourning covers the time of the dwelling in Egypt, but the dwelling 
there does not comprehend all the time of the sojourning. 

The 400 years end a.m. 2433, ten years after the flight of Moses 
from the Court of Pharaoh, and this is, therefore, the beginning of the 
30 years' time of the end, in which Egypt was to be judged. The 
consummation of the judgment signalized the Exodus " in the fourth 
generation ;" the first being represented by Levi contemporary with 
Abraham ; the second, by Kohath ; the third, by Amram ; and the 
fourth, by Moses and his contemj)oraries (Exod. vi. 16-20). We are 
informed by Paul in Gal. iii. 16, 17, that there was an interval of 
430 years between the Confirmation of the Abrahamic Land Covenant 
and the promulgation of the Mosaic Law. My Chronology exactly fills 
up that interval with the required number of years, without any 
shortening, stretching, or overlapping of periods. It begins a.m. 2033, 
and ends a.m. 2463. 



7.— Computations Concerning the Exodus. 

Josephus and Hales make the Exodus... 
Usher and the Editors of the English Bible 
Calmet 

Vulgar Jewish Chronology ... 
Shimeall , . . 

The author's Computation, which differs 22 years fi'om Hales' Josephus, 
and 135 from Usher's incorporated with the English Version 



B.C. 

1648 
1491 
1487 
1312 
1619 

1626 



Shimeall makes the world at the Exodus too old by 50 years. He 
reckons it at 2513 ; an error arising frctn his mistake about the age of 
Abraham at the death of Terah. 



16 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



A.M. 



THIRD PERIOD. 

FROM THE EXODUS TO THE JUDGES. 
EMBRACES 70 YEARS. 

Names and Events. Years. References. 



B.C. 



2463 


Exocle from Egypt on the night of the first Pass- 
over on the 14th of Abib or Nisan, the fii'st 










month of the Hebrew year and calendar 





Exod. xii. 2, 6 ; xiii. 4 ... 


1626 




The Law given from Sinai fifty days after tlie 










Exode 




„ xix. 1. 






The Spies, witli the exception of Josliua and Caleb, 










give an evil report 




Numb. xiv. 37, 38. 




2503 


Moses dies, aged 120: Sojourn in the wilderness 
ends : Joshua succeeds him, being 80 years old : 
he invades Canaan at harvest time on the 10th 
of the first month 

The people circumcised and keep the Passover in 
the plains of Jericho; the supply of manna 
stopped two days after 

Beginning of tlie 480 years of 1 Kings vi. 1, at 
the end of the forty years' " coming out of the 





Josh. iii.l5: iv. 19; 
Deut. xxxiv. 7. 

„ V. 2, 12. 






land of Egypt" 


40 


IKin. vi. 1 


1586 




The Angel -Prince of Yahweh's host appears armed 










to Joshua 





Josh. V. 13. 






Seven priestly trumpeters compass Jericho once a 










day for six days, followed by the Ark of the 










Covenant ; but on the seventh day seven times ; 










and at the seventh time the people shouted, and 










the wall of the city fell 




„ vi. 20. 




2508 


The land of Canaan has rest from war five years 










after the passage of Jordan; Caleb 85 years... 


5 


„ xiv. 10, 15; xi. 23... 


1581 


2533 


Joshua dies, aged 110, and is succeeded by the 




„ xxiii. 1; xxiv. 29; 






Judges 


25 


Judg.i.l3: iii.9. 


1556 




Number of years from the Exode to Joshua's death. 


70 







NOTES ON THE THIRD PERIOD. 
1.— Tlie Great Chronological G-ordian Knot. 

1. Upon the entrance of Israel into Canaan and the times immedi- 
ately succeeding, Shimeall says : " There is a difference between the 
chronology of 1 Kings vi. 1, of the received version, and that of Acts 
xiii. 17-22, of more than 100 years." In another place, he says : " It 
is within this period of the chronology of the Old Testament that we 
meet with the principal difficulties to be encountered in its adjust- 
ment. It relates to the discrepancy between the dates of 1 Kings 
vi. 1, and those of Acts xiii. 17-22, in reference to the interval between 
the Exode and the fourth year of Solomon. Then, further connected 
with this chronological discrepancy are two breaks, or chasms — the 
first, the Interregnum, or time of anarchy of Israel, between the 
death of Joshua and the first servitude, in regard to which the 
Scriptures are entirely silent ; and the second, the administrations 
of Eli, Samuel, Sampson, and Saul, the dates of which are not 
defined in the Old Testament. It is hence, taken as a whole, The 
Great Chronological Gordian Knot, which, till within a few years 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE SORIPTCRES. 17 

last past, has baffled the skill of many a master in Israel, who 
failing to nntie it — like the knot in the harness of the Phrygian 
king Gordius at the hand of Alexander — have attempted to cut it 
asunder. This process, however, in view of the important issue 
involved — that of a difference of over 100 years in the current chron- 
ology of our English version as to the true date of the Nativity — will 
not do. The two chasms must be bridged over, and the discrepancy 
which overleaps the whole period, as given in 1 Kings vi. 1, and Acts 
xiii. 17-22, must be accounted for, and the true period determined 
from reliable data " (Bihle Chron., pp. 9, 186). 

I have, for the sake of simplifying the matter, resolved this notable 
chronological period into three divisions ; first, from the Exode to 
Joshua's death; second, from Joshua's death to the establishment of 
Samuel as prophet ; and third, from the establishment of Samuel to 
the foundation of the temple in the fourth of Solomon. These periods 
are, in fact, the divisions presented to the reader in 1 Kings vi. 1 itself, 
which I here place before him in columnar juxtaposition with Acts xiii. 
17-22, between which I undertake to prove there is no discrepancy at 
all to be accounted for. 

1 Kings vi. 1. Acts xiii. 17-22. 

"And it was in eighty years and four hundred 17. " The God of this people Israel chose our 

years, from the going- out of the sons of Israel fathers and raised the people in the sojourning 
from the land of Mitzraim, in the fourth year, in the land of Egypt, and with an exalted arm 
in the month Zif, which is the second month of brought them out of it. 18. And as it were of 
the reigning of Solomon over Israel, he builds the forty years' time, He bore with their conduct 
Bfouse for Yaliweh." in the wilderness. 19. And having cast down 

seven nations in the land of Canaan, He dis- 
tributed their land to them by lot. 20. And 
after these things, He gave judges, as it were, 
four hundred and fifty years until Samuel the 
Prophet. 21. Afterwards [icatceLdev) they de- 
manded a king, and the Deity gave to them 
Saul, the son of Kis, a man of the tribe of 
Benjamin, forty years. 22. And having removed 
him, He raised up to them David for king, to 
whom also He gave testimony, saying, I have 
found David the son of Jesse, a man after my 
heart, who will execute all my purposes." 

Here, then, is a period in 1 Kings vi. 1 of 480 years, to be com- 
puted " from the going out of Egypt " into the land of Canaan. This 
going out was^ not a day or a week's march ; but, as Paul in Acts 
xiii. 17, 18 intimates, a period of forty years in the wilderness. So 
long as the tribes were in the wilderness, they were on the march to 
Canaan, and not yet beyond the geographical limits of Egypt : for the 
wilderness was " the wilderness of the land of Egypt " (Ezek. xx. 36). 
Shimeall says : " The whole period from the Exode to the foundation 
of the temple in the fourth year of Solomon is 587 years." This shows 
that he, as an example of others, begins his computation at the time 
when Israel crossed the Red Sea. But this is forty years too early. 
The 480 years of 1 Kings vi. 1 is exclusive of this forty years, which 
being added, as they are in effect in both texts, give 520 years from 
the Exode to Samuel the Prophet, and 84 years thence to the fourth 
of Solomon : a total of 604 years instead of 587. 



18 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



After mentioning the forty years in tlie wilderness, Paul then 
specifies the conquest of the seven nations, and distribution of their 
country by lot, without stating how many years were consumed in the 
operation. He then proceeds to say that " after these things " came 
the time of the Judges, which lasted 450 years until Samuel the 
Prophet. He does not say how long after the conquest and survey it 
was to the commencement of the time of the Judges, but merely tells 
us that it was a subsequent period. Indeed, it was quite unnecessary 
for him to specify this. For, having stated that the time of the J udges 
was 450 years, they were, therefore, given to understand that the 
remainder of the 480 of 1 Kings vi. 1, that is, 30 years, was the. 
interval between the entrance into Canaan under Joshua and the 
beginning of the time of the Judges. He then points to the time of 
Samuel as the terminus of the 450 years. And that it might be 
known in what time of Samuel's history they ended, he speaks of him 
as " Samuel the Prophet " — to the establishment of Samuel as 
Yahweh's prophet in Israel. 

Having disposed of the 480 years of 1 Kings vi. 1, Paul states 
that Israel afterwards demanded a king. He does not specify how 
long after the establishment of Samuel as prophet they preferred 
this demand, but he briefl}'' disposes of the loeriod by giving forty 
years to the removal of Saul by death. He then proceeds to David, 
whom he introduces as the ancestor of Christ, even Jesus, whom 
he preached. 

Now, in all this, there is not the least discrepancy between the 
recorder in 1 Kings vi. 1 and the apostle Paul. The chronological 
harmony between these two authorities may be synoptically exhibited 
in the following view : 





The Eecorder of Israel. 




The Apostle Paul. 






1 Kings vi, 1. 


Years. 


Acts xiii. 17-22. 


Years. 


1. 


The going out from the land of 




1. The Deity bore with their conduct 






Mitzraim, ending in the passage 




in the AVilderness 


40 




of the Jordan 


40 






2. 


From the end of the going out ... 


480 


2. Conquest and survey of the land 
to the time of the Judges 


30 


3. 


From the end of 480 years to the 




From the time of the Judges to 






4th of Solomon 


84 


Samuel the Prophet 

3. From Samuel to removal of Saul.. 
From Saul's death 1o the 4th of Solomon 


450 
40 
44 


Whole number of years from the pas- 










sage of the Red Sea to the 










foundation of the Temple 




Whole number of years according to 






according to 1 'Kings vi. 1 ... 


604 


Acts -xiii 


604 



2. Of the " two breaks or chasms," I shall treat in the notes upon 
my Fourth Period. They are, I believe, as easily disposed of, as we 
have found the untying of this " Great Chronological Gordian 
Knot," which Mr. Shimeall claims to have untwisted. But from the 
data before us, it is impossible that his claims can be allowed. On 
the contrary, we are compelled to add him to the number of the 
"many masters in" the Laodicean "Israel," whose skill has been 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



19 



baffled in the work of applying their " ripe scholarship " to the 
untying or cutting this intricate involution of dates. Instead of there 
being " a difference of over 100 years between the chronology 
of 1 Kings vi. 1 and Acts xiii. 17-22," we find that there is 
no difference at all ; but that the chronologies of these two texts 
beautifully harmonize. The " discrepancy " lies between the texts, 
which are correct enough, and the inability of chronological theorists, 
or mar-texts, to understand them. Inability, not from deficiency of 
classical, astronomical, and collegiate divinity lore ; bat, in the words 
of Mr. Shimeall, " of a proper knowledge of the subject involved." 
Their scholarly acquirements have proved of as little use to them in the 
chronology of the Scriptures, as in the understanding of the gospel. 
They have all signally failed to interpret either ; and they must ever 
fail, until they ignore their worldly wisdom, which the Deity condemns 
as folly ; and they come to apply themselves with the disposition of 
little children, to the study of the first principles of His deep and holy 
oracles. 



FOURTH PERIOD, 

THE TIME OF THE JUDGES "UNTIL SAMUEL 
THE PROPHET." 

EMBRACES 450 YEARS. 

A.M. Names and Events. Ye((rs. Heference. 



B.C. 



2533 


Death of Joshua 






1556 


2580 


The Elclei-s out living Joshua, and all their genera- 
tion gathered to their fathers : another genera- 
tion arises after them not knowing Yahweh, nor 
His works done for Israel, who serve Baal and 










Ashtaroth 


47 


Judg.ii.lO: xx.28: xxi.25. 


1509 


2588 


Subject judicially to Chusan-reshathaim, King of 










Mesopotamia ... 


8 


„ iii.8 


1501 


2628 


Delivered by Othniel, Caleb's younger brother, 










under whom the land rests 


40 


„ iii. 9, 11 


1461 


2646 


Servitude to the King of Moab 


18 


„ iii. 14 


1443 


2726 


Ehud, Shamgar, and Rest 


80 


„ iii. 30 


1363 


2746 


"Israel mightilj^ oppressed" by Jabin, King of 










Canaan 


20 


„ iv. 2, 3 


1343 


2786 


The land has rest under Deborah and Barak 


40 


„ V. 31 


1303 


2793 


Servitude to Midian 


7 


„ vi. 1 


1296 


2833 


The country in quietness in the days of Gideon ... 


40 


„ viii. 28 


1256 


2836 


Abimelech reigns over Israel 


3 


„ ix. 22 


1253 


2859 


Tola defends Israel 


23 


„ X. 2 


1230 


2881 


Jair judges the nation 


22 


„ X. 3 


1208 


2899 


Israel sore distressed by Philistines and Ammonites 


18 


„ X. 8 


1190 


2905 


Jephthah judges Israel 


6 


„ xil.7 


1184 


2912 


Ibsan 


7 


„ xii. 9 


1177 


2922 


Elon 


10 


„ xii. 11 


1167 


2930 


Abdon 


8 


„ xii. 14 


1159 


2970 


Israel subject to the Philistines 40 years, in the 
latter half of which the land is partially ruled 










by Samson 20 years 


40 


„ xiii. 1: XV. 20 ... 


1119 


2983 


Eli's judgeship to the establishment of Samuel as 










the Prophet of Yahweh 


13 


ISam. iii. 20: iv. 18 ... 


1106 




Number of years from the death of Joshua " until 










Samuel the prophet " ; and 480 from the 










invasion of Canaan 


450 


1 Kin. vi. 1 ; Acts xiii. 20. 





20 CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

NOTES ON THE FOURTH PERIOD. 
1.— Joshua's Age at the Exodus. 

1. Some clironologists have rightly guessed the age of Joshua at 
the Exodus. Among these is Mr. Shimeall, who says " Joshua was 
40 years old when sent out with the spies, and 45 when the land was 
divided ; hence that division was effected five years after their first 
occupying of it in Joshua's 85th year." In proof of this, he tells the 
reader to " compare the references " given, as Josh. xiv. 7, 10. But, 
on turning to said references, we find the most extraordinary kind of 
proof ! We find that instead of proving Joshua to be the alleged age, 
it says nothing about Joshua's age at all, but only of Caleb's ! This is 
truly clerical logic ; of which sort is the argument, that because Moses 
was 80 years old at the passage of the Red Sea, the Man in the Moon 
was then 80 also ! 

But, as I have said, chronologists have rightly guessed that 
Joshua and Caleb were of the same age at the Exodus, though they 
have failed to prove it. They have supposed it ; but supposition will 
not do for a reliable chronological basis. It must be proved ; and this 
is the proof I have to offer. 

When administrations vacate office, they are immediately succeeded 
by others. Joshua's administration terminated with his death. He 
was 110 years old when he died ; but it is not expressly stated how 
old he was when he succeeded Moses. It is, therefore, a question, 
how many years elapsed during the administration of Joshua ? This 
question has been answered by 1 Kings vi, 1, and Paul, We learn 
from these, that as the time of Moses was succeeded by the time of 
Joshua ; so the time of Joshua was succeeded by the time of the 
Judges, The text in Kin^s testifies to the time of Moses ending 480 
years before the event Paul specifies in the words " Samuel the 
Prophet ; " and Paul gives us further to understand, that the time 
of the Judges began 450 years before the same event. The difference 
between these two numbers, which is 30 years, is, therefore, the 
duration of the time of Joshua's administration, intervening between 
the time of Moses and the time of the Judges. Now Joshua died at 
the end of his official time, aged 110 ; or 70 years after the passage 
of the Red Sea. Deduct 70 from 110, and there remain 40, which 
was the age of Joshua at the Exodus. 

2.- The Time of the Judges. 

2. We come .now to the time of the Judn^es. This has been a 
great trouble to chronologists. The great difficulties with them are 
what they term chasms, or breaks ; the first, from the death of Joshua 
to the first servitude, of which, they say, the Scriptures say nothing; 
and the second, the periods of the administrations of Eli, Samuel, 
Samson, and Saul, concerning the dates of which the Old Testament 
affords them no light. Accepting this confession as the truth, it 
is manifestly useless to expect any aid from them. They are left 
in a hopeless quandary ; hemmed in between two chasms they are 
unable to bridge. 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 21 

The condition of the chronologists being so hapless, there remains 
no alternative but to abandon the subject, or to engineer deliverance 
for ourselves. I believe that the chasms can be spanned with solid 
and substantial bridges, upon which the wayfaring man may wend 
his way, with firm and steady step, from the death of Joshua to the 
House building for Yahweh in the 4th of Solomon. 

In the first place, Paul does not lead us to suppose that the time 
each judge ruled, when added together, made 450 years. He simply 
affirms that, at a time subsequent to the distribution of the land by 
lot, the Deity gave Israel judges. These judges, his audience well 
knew, were raised up as occasional deliverers ; not as consecutively 
elected or hereditary rulers. The regular government of the nation 
was the Mosaic Law administered by the High Priest and Elders. 
The aggregate time in which the individual judges '"given," exercised 
secular and military authority, was 292 years. These years, Paul 
informs us, in effect, were distributed over a period of. 450 years, 
ending at Samuel the prophet. The rest of this long period was made 
up of lesser periods, in which such conditions of public affairs 
obtained as created a necessity for divine assistance. These periods 
collectively make 158 ; which, added to the 292, make 450. After 
"Samuel the prophet," judges were no more given as aforetime; the 
time having come to place the nation under kings and hereditary civil 
chief magistrates. 

In computing the constituent periods of this remarkable era, we 
are limited to " Samuel the prophet." Beyond this point the 450 years 
must not pass. And Paul tells us where to find that point, namely, 
forty years before the death of Saul. It follows, then, that, as it was 
480 3^ears from Joshua's passage of the Jordan to Samuel the prophet, 
it was 520 years from the said passage, a.m. 2503, to the death of Saul, 
A.M. 3023, which is 490 years, or Seventy Weeks, from the beginning 
of the 450 years. Thus the two chasms are spanned by one bridge of 
490 years' span from the death of Joshua to the death of Saul, and 
the beginning of David's reign. This apportions 40 years to all the 
events transpiring between Samuel's installation and Saul's death. 
Calculating the servitudes and deliverances by judges, backwards from 
Samuel in the 13th of Eli, we have 403 years ; leaving a space of 47 
years from Chusan-rishathaim's conquest to the death of Joshua. 
This afforded time for the Elders who survived Joshua, and aU their 
generation, to die out ; and for another generation to arise, not know- 
ing Yahweh and His works. 

2. Eli judged Israel 40 years. He died at the end of this period 
on hearing that the Ark was taken, and that his sons, Hophni and 
Phineas, were slain.""- When the Ark was returned, it remained 20 
years at Kirjath-jearim, when it was removed by David in the eighth 
of his reign, or seven years and six months after Saul's death ; between 

^- Josephus reckons 32 years from tlie death of Eli to the death of Saul 
(Ant. vi. 1 § 1) ; and Saul's reign as 20 years, 18 years during Samuel's life, and 
2 after his death (Ant. vi. 14 § 9). 



22 



OHEOXOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



whicli and the capture of the Ark and death of Eli, there could 
only have been 13 years. These 13 years deducted from the 40 of 
Acts xiii. 21, leave 27, which carry us back to the year of Eli's judge- 
ship indicated by the phrase "Samuel the prophet," namely to the 
13th, which ended the 450 years of the judges. 



FIFTH PERIOD. 

FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SAMUEL AS PROPHET, 
TO THE FOUNDATION OF THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON. 



A.M. 



EMBRACES 

Names and Evenis. 



84 



YEARS 

Years. 



References. 



B.C. 



2983 


Establishment of Samuel as pi'opliet in Shiloli in 










13th of Eli 




1 Sam. iii. 21 


1106 


3010 


The Ark of the Covenant captured by the Philis- 
tines in the fortieth of Eli's judgeship., and 
fiuen/y-seoeiit/i of Samuel's officiate ... 27 








3023 


Saul falls upon his sword on Mount Gilboa... 13 
Solution of the saying, " God gave them Saul — by 




„ xxxi. 4. 






f/ie .S2:)oce 0/ 40 years " 40 


40 


Acts xiii. 21 


1066 




David begins to reign in Hebron seven years and 










six months before he removes the Ark to Zion, 










being thirty years old ; he was therefore born 










ten years after Samuel's installation, and 










set'e?itceH &e/o?'e the Ark's capture 




2 Sam. ii. 11. 




3030 


Zion captured by David ; upon which he removes 
the capital of his kingdom thither, and calls it 
"The City of David," having previously 
reigned in Hebron seven years and six 










months 


7 


„ V. 7 


1059 




He removes the Akk to Zion twenty years 










and ten months after its capttire 




1 Sam. vi. 1 : vii. 2 : 




3063 


He reigns there thirty and three years over all 




2 Sam. vi. 11, 12 






Israel and Judah 


33 


2Sam. V. 4 


1026 




David dies, aged seventy years 








3067 


Solomon succeeds him, and begins to build the 










Temple in the fourth year of his reign 


4 
84 


1 Kings vi.l 


1022 



NOTES ON THE FIFTH PERIOD. 

1. This fifth period of 84 years is the third of 1 Kings vi. 1, 
whose terminus is indicated by " the fourth year of Solomon." It 
begins at the end of the 480, and ends at the year of the foundation of 
the temple. 

1.— A Reign of Forty Years Impossible for Saul. 

2. All the chronologies extant, as far as I am informed, assign 
40 years to Saul's reign. They are led into this egregious mistake by 
a misinterpretation of Acts xiii. 21, " The Deity gave to them Saul the 
Son of Kis forty years." But it was utterly impossible that Saul 
could have reigned forty years ; neither is Paul to be understood as 
so saying. We learn from 1 Sam. vii. 6, that Samuel was the judge 
of Israel after the death of Eli, and after the return of the captured 
Ark from the Philistines' land. Down to this time, and " all the 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE SORIPTQRES. 23 

days of Samuel " after (ver. 13), the name of Saul does not appear on 
the record. Samuel's judgeship continued years after the return of 
the Ark, as is manifest from verses 13-17 ; even till he had become an 
old man, and had associated his sons with him in the administra- 
tion of public affairs (ch. viii. 1-5). It was the evil course of these 
sons that caused the elders of Israel to say, " Make us a king to judge 
us like all the nations." The Deity commanded Samuel to comply with 
this demand ; to anoint Saul over them, and to frame a constitution 
for the kingdom (1 Sam. x. 25 ; xi. 14, 15). When Saul had reigned 
two years, he committed a transgression which caused him the loss of 
the kingdom (1 Sam. xiii. 14). David was then anointed, and subse- 
quently persecuted by Saul, who dies in battle not long after — at the 
end of 40 years from the 13th of Eli. 

Now, on Saul's death, David immediately began to reign over 
Judah in Hebron, being thirty years old. He reigned there seven 
years and six months ; at the end of this time he captured Zion from 
the Jebusites, which he called " the city of David," and made it his 
capital and abode. Having removed thither, he determined also to 
transfer the Ark from Kirjath-jearim to the same place. Now, let the 
reader mark well, that it is expressly stated that the Ark, when captured, 
was seven months with the Philistines ; after its retarn, 20 years at 
Kirjath-jearim; and, at the end of that "long time," three months at 
Obed-edom's — in all 20 years 10 months. This is the whole number 
of years from the death of Eli, or capture of the Ark, to the eighth 
year of David's reign, which was seven years and six months after 
Saul's death ; leaving only 13 years and 4 months from the death of 
Eli to that of Saul. How, then, could it be possible for Saul to have 
reigned 40 years ? The probability is that he did not reign seven. 
With such errors as I have pointed out, no wonder that chronologists 
have so signally failed in presenting the world with a correct computa- 
tion of its age at the Nativity of its Deliverer. 



24 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTUEES. 



SIXTH PERIOD. 

THE TEMPLE ERA FROM THE FOUNDATION TO THE 
DESTRUCTION BY NEBUCHADNEZZAR. 



A.M. 



EMBRACES 430 YEARS. 

Names and Events. Years. References. 



B.C. 



3067 



3103 
3107 



3120 
3123 
3164 
3189 
3197 
3198 
3204 
3244 
3273 
3325 
3341 
3357 
3386 



3441 
3443 

3474 



3477 
3485 



3496 
3497 



Foundation of the Temple laid in the fourth of 
Solomon 

The EzEKiBL-/oitr hundred and thirty years of 
Judah and Israel's iniquity begin 

The Temple finished in seven years, and dedicated 

Solomon dies, having reigned forty years 

Rehoboam succeeds him, and walks in tlie way of 
David thi-ee years 

"Eehoboam forsook the law of Yahweh and all 
Israel withhim " at the end of the Ezeki el -forty 
years, and the beginning of the Ezekiel -three 
hundred and ninety, in the fourth of his reign.. 

Rest of Rehoboam's reign 

Abijam ... ... ... .... 

Asa 

Jehoshaphat 

Jelioram ... 

Aliaziah 

Queen Athaliah's Usurpation 

Joash 

Amaziah 

Azariah or Uzziah — Isaiali the prophet flourishes... 

Jotham 

Ahaz 

Hezekiah 

End of the Kingdom of the Ten Tribes in 6th 
Hezekiah 

Manasseh 

Amon 

Josiah 

The great Passover, surpassing all celebrations 
since the days of Samuel the propliet in the 
18th of Josiah; Ezekiel's epoch; Jeremiah 
the prophet flourislies 

Jehoahaz reigns thi-ee months, when he was 
dethroned by Necho 

The first of Nebuchadnezzar ... 

Jehoiakim, or Eliakim, succeeds him, and is 
detlai'oned by Nebuchadnezzar after 

Jelioiachin, or Jeconiah, succeeds laim, and reigns 

tliree months and ten days ; at the end of the 

year he is carried to Babylon in the eighth 

year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign ; also Ezekiel 

and Daniel 

Zedekiah, Jehoiachim's uncle, set up by Nebu- 
cliadnezzar, against whom he rebelled: he 
was detlironed after reigning 

The Temple burnt in tlie 19tli of Nebuchadnezzar.. 

in the fifth year of Jelioiachin's captivity, Ezekiel 
" sees visions of JElohim." This was " the 
thirtieth year " from Josiah's Great Passover... 

The years of the iniquity of Judah and Israel 
during the Temple era, on account of which 
they eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles 
for a like period. 



1 Kin. vi. 1 



Ezek. iv. 6 

1 Kin. vi. 37, 38. 



2 Ohron. xi. 17. 



„ „ xii. 1 

1 Kin. xiv. 21 
„ XV. 2 

„ XV. 10 

2 Chron. xx. 31 

„ xxi. 5 
„ xxii. 2 
„ xxii. 12 
„ xxiv. 1 

„ XXV. 1 

„ xxvi. 3 ; 

„ xxvii. 1 

„ XXV iii. 1 

„ xxix. 1 

2 Kin. xviii. 10. 
2 Chron. xxxiii. 1 
„ xxxiii. 21 
xxxiv. 1 



Isa. i.l 



XXXV. 18, 25 ; 

Ezek. 1. 1. 



xxxvi. 2. 



1022 



925 
900 
892 
891 
885 
845 
816 
764 
748 
732 
703 



615 



612 



2 Kin. xxiv. 8, 12, 14. 



„ xxiv. 17, 18 
Ezek. xxxiii. 21 .. 



„ i. 1, 2. 



iv. 13. 



593 
592 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 25 



NOTES ON THE SIXTH PERIOD. 
1.— The Number 430. 

1. I style this sixth period the Temple Era, because its 430 years 
are current with the existence of Solomon's building, from its 
foundation to its destruction ; and because its foundation is made an 
epoch in 1 Kings vi. 1. 

2, The whole number 430 is evidently an important and signifi- 
cant totality in Bible Chronology. There was exactly that number of 
years from the Confirmation of the Abrahamic Land Covenant to the 
historico-typical initial fulfilment of its promises at the Exodus. In 
this sixth period it is exactly reproduced. It was a time in which, as 
Daniel testifies, " We Israelites have sinned and committed iniquity, 
and done wickedly, and rebelled, even by departing from Thy precepts 
and from Thy judgments, Yahweh, the great and dreadful God, 
neither have we hearkened unto Thy servants the prophets, who spake 
in Thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the 
people of the land " (ch. ix. 4-6). For this general apostacy, and for 
their not turning from their iniquities that they might understand the 
truth, Daniel furthermore deposes that, in destroying the city and 
temple, slaying them by the sword, and sending them into captivity 
far off from the land, which he terms " a great evil," the Deity had 
" confirmed His words, which He spake against us, and against our 
judges that judged us ; . . . for under the whole heaven hath not 
been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem ; as it is written in the 
law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us " (ver. 12, 13). Of this 
period of 430 years, Judah was held responsible solely for forty years 
of the iniquity ; because, during that period, from the foundation of 
the temple to the fourth of Rehoboam's reign, Judah was the ruler of 
the nation. It was Solomon's commingling of idolatry with the wor- 
ship of Yahweh that brought calamity upon Israel ; for which apostacy, 
consummated nationally in Rehoboam's reign, Judah was severely 
punished at the end of the 430 years. 

From the 4th of Rehoboam to the 19th of Nebuchadnezzar was 
an interval of 390 years. This was the remainder of the 430, after 
deducting the 40 years assigned to Judah. Of these 390, the king- 
dom of Ephraim consisting of the Ten Tribes, continued 256 years ; 
and ceased to exist for ever in the 6th of Hezekiah, a.m. 3363. 
After this, Judah continued the sole kingdom in the land 134 years, 
which brings us to the end of the 430, in all of which Judah had 
the supremacy 174 years. 

Now the whole number 430 years, and its division into 40 years 
for Judah, and 390 for Israel, are chronologically determined in 
Ezek. iv. 4-6. In this place, the prophet is made to represent the 
Hebrew nation laden with iniquit}^ As its sin-bearer, he is com- 
manded to lie on his left side, with the iniquity of the House of Israel 
upon it, to bear its iniquity as many days as it was years in accumu- 
lating — 390 days for 390 years ; or '* a day for a year." He was to go 
through the same course on his right side for Judah — a day for a 



26 CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

year ; or 40 days for 40 years. Had the accumulated iniquity been 
developed only in tlie 256 years of the kingdom of Ephraim, Ezekiel 
would have laid on his left side 256 days ; but the iniquity to be 
punished with the destruction of the City and Temple, had been 
accumulating in all the temple-era of 430 years ; and, therefore, the 
prophet had to bear it typically 430 days for the real time 430 years. 
In this way, Ezekiel determines for us the exact number of the years 
of the sixth period of our chronology, with which we find events and 
their times in strict accord. 

The fifth of Jehoiachin's captivity was the 13th year of Nebu- 
chadnezzar's reign ; and the 30th from Josiah's great Passover, in the 
18th of Josiah's reign. In this year of the captivity " the word of 
Yahweh " began to " come expressly to Ezekiel in the land of the 
Chaldeans." Ezekiel became a captive in the 7th of Nebuchadnezzar 
(Jer. lii. 28). In the 12th of his captivity, he received information by 
one who had escaped that Jerusalem was taken (Ezek. xxxiii. 21). It 
was smitten the year before the temple was burned, in the 18th of 
Nebuchadnezzar, fn the five years between the fifth of Jehoiachin 
and the 18th of Nebuchadnezzar, Ezekiel typically bore Israel's iniquity 
430 days ; or 1 year, 2 months, 10 days. As he typically laid siege 
to Jerusalem while he was typically bearing the iniquity of the nation, 
his typical siege must have commenced at the beginning of the 430 
days. While these were progressing, it was " a sign to the House of 
Israel," that the nine years' siege of the city would end at the end of 
the days in capture and destruction, in part punishment of past 
iniquity ; and, furthermore, that the 430 typical days being ended, 
they should enter upon a like period of 430 years, in all of which *' the 
children of Israel should eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, 
whither Yahweh would drive them " (Ezek. iv. 13). 

Daniel was informed, in reference to the condition of his com- 
patriots in this long period, in which they groaned under Chaldean, 
Persian, and Greek oppression, that " they should fall by the sword, 
and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, days." It was not necessary 
to tell him how many " days," for that had been significantly revealed 
through Ezekiel. He was told respecting the end of those " days," 
that *' the people who knew their God should be strong and do ; " and 
that " those among the people who understood should instruct 
many " (Dan. xi. 32-34). This was encouraging ; and also remarkably 
verified in the times of the Maccabees. This Levitical family, known 
also as the Asmoneans, began to acquire celebrity in the reign of 
Antiochus Epiphanes, who undertook to abolish Judaism, and to 
make all his subjects Greeks. This mad enterprise was initiated in 
the 145th year of the Era of the Greeks, when he caused an abomina- 
tion of desolation to be placed upon the altar (1 Mace. i. 54). This 
answers to a.m. 3918. The year after, Matthias, the patriarch of the 
family, died, and on his deathbed, appointed his son, Judas 
Maccabaeus, to lead the revolt of Israel against the Greeks. This was 
in the year before Christ, 170. Six years did Judas, by his mighty 
deeds, show that Israel was in the epoch foreshown to Daniel. Judas 
and his adherents, " who knew their God were strong and did 



CHROXOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 27 

exploits." " In his acts he was hke a lion, and like a lion's whelp 
roaring for his prey ; for he pursued the wicked and sought them out, 
and burned up those that vexed his people. Wherefore the wicked 
shrunk for fear of him, and all the workers of iniquity were troubled. 
He grieved also many kings, and made Jacob glad with his acts, 
and his memorial is blest for ever " (1 Mace. iii. 4). Judas died in 
battle, in the year 152 of the Era of the Greeks, or B.C. 164, which 
was 428 years after the burning of the temple in the 19th of Nebu- 
chadnezzar. There still remain two years of the 430 to be accounted 
for. In regard to these, the history of the epoch informs us that 
Judas' brother Jonathan was elected "Prince and Captain in his 
stead:" and. that, on the death of Alcimus, in the 153rd year, the 
Greeks evacuated the land of Judea, in consequence of which, " it loas 
in rest tivo years;'' at the end whereof, there was a delivery of 
Hebrew captives, "and tUe sword ceased from Israel" — a.m. 3927, 
and B.C. 162 (1 Mace. ix. 54, 57, 73). 

Thus, having " eaten their defiled bread among the Gentiles " 430 
years, as a punishment for 430 years' iniquity under their kings, coeval 
with the existence of Solomon's temple, " they were holpen with a 
little help," according to the Deity's word in Dan. xi. 34. The wars 
of this Maccabsen epoch had re-conquered for them their indepen- 
dence. Under their Asmonsen kings, Israel again became a power in 
the earth ; and in alliance with their new friends of the Roman 
Senate, assumed not only a respectable, but a formidable, position in 
the esteem of their still powerful neighbours of Syria and Egypt. 



28 



CHROiJOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



SEVENTH PERIOD, 

FROM THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE TO THE 
DECREE FOR BUILDING JERUSALEM. 



A.M. 



EMBRACES 136 YEARS. 

Names and Events. Years. 



References. 



3497 


. Temple burnt in the 19th. of Nebuchadnezzar 




Jer. 


lii. 12, 13 


592 


3501 


In the 23rd of Nebuchadnezzar 745 Jews carried 
captive to Babylon 






28, 30. 




3523 


Jehoiachin liberated from prison in the 37th of 
his captivity 

The captivity began in the 8th of Nebuchadnezzar ; 
the 37th is, therefore, /orty-^ue years after the 
1st of Nebuchadnezzar ; and after the burning 




*• 


31. 






of the Temple 


26 




... 


566 


3547 


From the 37th Jehoiachin and 1st of Evil 
Merodach to fall of Belshazzar, in the first of 
Darius the Mede ; 70 years from first of 












Nebuchadnezzar 


24 






542 


3549 


" The third year of Cyrus " the first of his sole 












reign. He decrees the rebuilding of the 




Jer. 


XXV. 12: xxvii. 7: 






Temple 


2 




xxix. 10 ; Ezra. i. 1. 


540 




Daniel the Prophet dies 




Dan 


i. 21. 




3567 


Darius the Persian, in the 2nd of his reign, issues 
a decree enforcing that of Cyrus, being 70 years 












from 19th of Nebuchadnezzar 


18 


Ezra iv. 24: vi. 1-12 ... 


522 


3571 


The Temple is finished in the 6th of Darius, or 70 












years from the 23rd of Nebuchadnezzar 


4 




vi. 15 


518 


3601 


Darius reigns after the Temple is finished 


30 




RoUin 


488 


3613 


Xerxes, the fourth and richest of all the Medo- 












Persian kings 


12 


Dan 


xi. 2;Rollin 


476 


3620 


Artaxerxes issues a decree in the 7th of his reign 
for the restoration of the Temple-service, 
magistrates and judges with power to tax and 












execute the law 


7 


Ezra 


vii. 24-26, 7 


469 


3633 


Artaxerxes makes a second decree in the 20th of 
his reign for building the walls and gates and 
restoring Jerusalem, termed in Daniel " restor- 












ing and building Jerusalem." The 70 weeks 




Dan. 


ix. 25, 26 ; 






begin here and end at the crucifixion 


13 




Neh. li. 1, 5, 17... 


456 




Whole nujnber of years from 19th Nebuchadnezzar 












to the 20th of Artaxerxes 


136 









NOTES ON THE SEVENTH PERIOD. 
1.— Interesting Dates ot Nebuchadnezzar's Reign. 

1. The epoch of Nebuchadnezzar contains several dates of interest 
and importance, which may be enumerated thus : 

a. The first j^ear of his reign, a.m. 3477, and b.o. 612. This began 
the subjection of nations, including Israel, to " him, his son, and his 
son's son," for 70 years (Jer. xxv. 12 : xxvii. 7). This period ended 
with the capture of Babylon by Darius the Mede, B.C. 542. The first 
year is also the beginning of the " Seven Toies " which were to pass 
over " the kingdom of Men " (Dan. iv. 23). This long period is the 
lifetime, or ^on, of the Image the -King of Babylon, in the second 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 29 

of his reign, saw in his dream (Dan. ii. 31). It ends in the a.d. 1908 
— A.^i. 5997. 

h. The seventh of Nebuchadnezzar, 3,023 Jews taken to Babylon ; 
and in the 8th, Jehoiachin, the royal family, and great men, with 
10,000 captives of the people, and all the precious vessels of the 
temple. 

c. The 18th of Nebuchadnezzar, "Jerusalem smitten," and 832 
more Jews deported to Babylon (Jer. Hi. 39). 

d. In the 19th of his reign the temple is burnt, a.m. 
3497=B.c. 592. Here begin Ezekiel's prophetic 430 years ; also a 
period of 70 years which terminated in the 2nd of Darius the Persian, 
when the rebuilding of the temple was resumed by the king's edict 
(Ezra iv. 24 ; vi. 1) ; a.m. 3567:=b.c. 522. 

e. In the 23rd year there was another deportation of captives to 
Babylon (Jer. lii. 30). This also became the beginning of a period 
of 70 years, which ended in tlie 6th of Darius, the year in which the 
rebuilding was finished (Ezra vi. 15 ; B.C. 518). 

2. — The Medo-Persian Dynasty. 

2. In the first year of Darius the Mede, the Breast and Arms of 
silver superseded the Head of gold in the government of the kingdom 
of men. In that year one said to Daniel, " There shall stand up yet 
three kings in Persia, and the fourth shall be far richer than they 
all " (Dan. xi. 2). The three were Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius the 
Persian — Smerdis the Magian not being reckoned, the few months of 
his usurpation merging into the first of Darius. The fourth was the 
renowned Xerxes, who " by his strength, through his riches, stirred 
up ail against the realm of Graecia." 

3.— Of the Third Year of Cyrus. 

3. Usher's computation incorporated with the English Version, 
makes " the third year of Cyrus " synchronize with B.C. 536 ; but 
according to mine, this date is four years too late. It should 
be B.C. 540. 

4. This B.C. 540 is an interesting and important epoch. It was 
the time of Daniel's " going his way." " He continued to the first 
year of King Cyrus " (Dan. i. 21) ; and received a revelation in 
" the third year of Cyrus " (ch. x. 1) : which years are therefore the 
same ; the first j^ear of Cyrus as the sole monarch of the Medo-Persian 
empire being the third from the beginning of his joint-rule with 
Darius the Mede. 

4.— The Evening- Morning Period. 

1. The thing revealed to Daniel in the third year of Cyrus is 
continued in chapters x., xi., xii. He was told that " the time 
appointed " of this thing was " long,^^ and that it extended to the 
latter days, or, " time of the end." In these chapters the whole of the 
appointed time is not expressed in figures. It was not necessary that 
it should be, because it had already been indicated in ch. viii. 14, 17. 



30 CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

There the appointed time is declared to be an Evening-Morning, reach- 
ing to the time of the end, but not embracing it. The periods in verse 
14 are two ; first, the period in which the Holy and the Host are 
trodden under foot ; and the second, the period in which the Holy is 
cleansed, vindicated, justified, or avenged. This second is not included 
in the first, but succeeds it. The duration of the interval between 
the end of the first period and the beginning of the second is not 
stated ; the sequence only of the one to the other is revealed in 
the word " then,'' in the sense of afterwards — " then shall the Holy 
be cleansed " or vindicated. Between the end of the Evening-Morning 
period and the beginning of the cleansing period is the advent o£ the 
Ancient of Days. How many months or years after the end of the 
evening-morning is not declared ; but this is certain, that the cleansing 
of the Holy cannot begin in his absence. 

But here we have to encounter a great embarrassment. The 
majority of Hebrew manuscripts that have come down to us, inform us 
that the Evening-Morning is a period of 2,300. This is the number 
adopted by the English Version. If all copies and versions extant 
read 2,300, we should have no alternative but to receive it or to reject 
it altogether. But in this reading they are not agreed ; for the 
Septuagint version made by the Jews learned in Greek, B.C. 265, reads 
2,400 ; while other manuscripts, according to Jerome, read 2,200. " It 
is objected to this prophetic number 2,300," says Shimeall in his 
Bihle Chronology, p. 152, " that the Vatican copy of the Septuagint 
reads 2,400 days ; and copies translated by Jerome ' 2,200 days ; ' and 
that in support of the former number, the celebrated missionary 
Joseph Wolff states that the Jews of Ispahan and Bokhara possess some 
ancient manuscripts of the prophetic writings of Daniel, in which chap, 
viii. 14, reads 2,400, instead of 2,300 days." Also, that when in 
Adrianople in 1826, he saw an Armenian manuscript of the Bible, in 
Greek, suj)posed to be of the fifth century, and translated by Mesrop, 
in which the same number occurs ; and yet this missionary tells us 
that " as the most number of manuscripts contain 2,300, he adopted 
that number in his arguments with the Mullah at Lucknow." He 
says also that " the authorities in favour of 2,300 " are very numerous 
compared with the others ; and the number 2,400 in the printed 
Septuagint is a typographical error of the Vatican edition, taken from 
the Vatican manuscript, which is said to read 2,300. 

But we Have found that the so-called " authorities " recognised by 
" divines " and chronologists are of little worth. We cannot, therefore, 
reject the 2,400 on their testimony. Should it be true that the Vatican 
manuscript reads 2,300, this only convicts the printed Septuagint of 
error. It does not affect Wolff's testimony concerning the ancient 
manuscripts of the Jews of Ispahan and Bokhara, and the Armenian 
cop3^ at Adrianople. It is evident that error exists somewhere, and 
that the *' authorities " are unable to rectify it. We are in a difficulty 
from which authority cannot deliver us. Let us then see if help 
cannot be obtained from another source. 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 31 

What is the reed or rule by which the time of a vision should be 
measured ? If this can be satisfactorily determined, its application to 
the claims of the rival numbers will show which of the three is entitled 
to a verdict in its behalf. The correct rule I conceive to be this, 
namely : that the time of a vision must he computed from the first 
event seen in the vision. There can be no good reason why an}" of the 
events of a vision should be excluded from its time. In this vision 
of Dan. viii., the first event the prophet sees is the last horn of the 
Ram-Power overtopping the first (ver. 3) ; and the last, the standing 
uj) of the Prince of princes (ver. 25). The event predicted in the 
third verse came to pass in the third year of Cyrus, B.C. 540. The 
two horns of the Medo-Persian Ram were high. The Median Horn, 
represented by Darius the Mede, and the Persian Horn, represented 
by Cyrus, were high above the Chaldean, which had been prostrated 
before them. For two years they ruled jointly in " the kingdom of 
men." But one of these horns became "higher than the other." 
Darius the Mede died, and left all the power of the kingdom in the 
hands of Cyrus, so that the Persian Horn was now higher than the 
Median, and retained the ascendancy henceforth. Thus, " the higher 
came up last ; " the Median having precedency, B.C. 542, and the Per- 
sian two years after, B.C. 540. 

Here then is the first event seen in the vision. Can any good 
reason be given why it should not be included in the time of the 
vision, whatever that may be ? I can see none. I accept it, therefore, 
as the beginning of the vision's Evening-Morning time. Hence the 
question in Dan. viii. 13 : " Until when the Vision of the Daily and 
of the transgression making desolate, to give both the Holy and the 
Host for a trampling?" — must be understood as an inquiry, "How 
long shall it be from the Persian. Horn overtopping the Median Horn, 
to the end of the Holy and the Host being given over for a down- 
treading?" The answer to the question reveals the terminal epoch. 
So long a time was to elapse before " the Day of Vengeance " came. 
The period would not include the day of vengeance, but would con- 
duct to that terrible epoch. 

The third year of Cyrus, then, is our commencing epoch — the year 
in which Daniel died, B.C. 540 ; and who is " to arise to his inherit- 
ance at the end of the days." Now, if the 2,200 be the correct num- 
ber, it will bring us to the verge of judgment — the dawn of the day 
of vengeance, when " the Holy and the Host," in the highest sense of 
these terms, will be avenged ; in other words, when the Saints shall 
be prevailed against no longer, and judgment shall be given into their 
hands, that they may take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom 
under the whole heaven. By deducting the B.C. 540 from 2,200 there 
remains a.d. 1660 for its termination. But this cannot be its terminal, 
because, instead of the Holy being vindicated in the triumph of the 
Saints and the restoration of their people Israel, they were then them- 
selves complaining to the British Government of their down-treading ; 
and in twenty-five years after, a.d. 1685, they were " killed," and laid 
prostrate for 105 years more, in the breadth of the Great City. Then 



32 CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

again, if the 2,300 be subjected to the same process, we have the 
terminal advanced a hundred years indeed ; but a.d. 1760 is as devoid 
of the ending characteristics of the Vision of the Daily as a.d. 1660. 
If our reed, then, be according to the divine standard of measurement, 
2,200 and 2,300 are both inadmissible. They are both of them spurious 
in spite of the numerous " authorities" and "competent judges," and 
the Pope's Vatican manuscript. 

But how is it with the 2,400 years of the Ispahan and Bokhara 
Hebrew manuscrijots — Ispahan, in the region where Daniel dwelt when 
he saw the vision ? Deduct the B.C. 540 from 2,400, and there remains 
A.D. 1860, for the time of the end of the vision — " to the time of the 
end of the vision.'' Now 1860 is a notable year in the history of the 
unmeasured Court of the Gentiles. It terminated after the Hebrew 
method in the Spring of 1861. In this season the first gun boomed 
from Fort Sumter, commencing the inauguration of impending 
vengeance upon the worshippers of " daemonials and idols." The end 
of A.D. 1860, brought upon the whole Fourth Beast Habitable the current 
epoch, made red with the blood, and flooded with the tears of ruined, 
groaning, and slaughtered myriads. It has been an epoch of woe 
upon the United States, Federal and Confederate ; upon Mexico, 
Poland, Denmark, and all other countries unto ward ly aJBfected by the 
American Civil War. These are only the " beginning of sorrows " — 
the initiation of that " distress of nations with perplexity," which 
signalizes the appearing of the Ancient of Days. The Evening- 
Morning of 2,400 — the erev hoker — is ended ; and its ending 
notably signalized by Divine vengeance falling upon nations, whose 
religious institutions and traditions are a stereotyped " blasphemy of 
the Name and Tabernacle of the Deity, and of them that dwell in 
heaven " — a downtreading of " the Holy and the Host " (Apoc. xiii. 6). 
Its termination has brought us to a crisis signalized also b}^ the Frog 
sign in the third and last stage of its development. The " unclean 
spirits like frogs " go forth " from the Mouth of the False Prophet " 
(Apoc. xvi. 13). The convention of the Frog Power with the King of 
Italy, dated September 15, 1864, for the withdrawal of the French troops 
from Rome two years after date, that is, by the end of 1866, will 
doubtless notably develop from the Papal Government the " unclean 
spirit " with which it is obviously inspired. The " god of the earth," 
unsupported by foreign bayonets, will certainly fall into much grief.""-'* 
Let it be noted, that 1,260 years ago, the Bishop of Rome was created 
by the Dragon-Emperor Phocas, a god in his estate: and now the 
policy of the Frog-Emperor and his intimates is to destroy his deity, 
or godship ; and to reduce him to his original insignificance as an 
episcopal subject of the empire. But gods generally die hard. If they 
cannot defend themselves by their own power, they appeal to other 
gods for aid. The Pope will doubtless do this. Abandoned to his 
own resources by the French, threatened by the Italians, and swal- 
lowed up by his own revolutionary Romans, a wail of anguish and 

* The Temporal Power fell 1870. This was written in 18G5.~PuhUsher. 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 33 

distress will arouse his worshippers and despotic allies to a grand 
rally in the interest of order and legitimacy, of which he is the 
ecclesiastical representative — an order imperilled even now on every 
side. 

Thus, from all the signs of the times connected with the Eastern 
and Romish questions — questions concentrating round the fate of 
Rome and Constantinople — it is not to be doubted that our current 
epoch is a great prophetic crisis ; a crisis signalised by the termination 
of one or more important pro23hetic periods, and marking the speedy 
or actual commencement of another. I have a strong conviction that 
2,400 is, and can only be, the correct number, and that it has reached 
its terminus. I have " full assurance of faith " that it commenced in 
" the third year of Cyrus ; " and if that year were, according to 
the computation of Usher and others, B.C. 536, even then it will have 
ended a.d. 1864 ; and the bloody epoch of 1861-5, will have been 
included in the 2,400 as its terminal four years. But the facts and 
figures of ray chronology prove that " the third year of Cyras " is not 
to be dated B.C. 536, but B.C. 540, which therefore causes the 2,400 
to end in a.d. 1860. 

Sir Isaac Newton accepted the 2,300, the beginning of which he 
assigned to B.C. 538. Shimeall rejects this, and begins them B.C. 480, 
at the invasion of Greece, by the Ram-power pushing westward 
under Xerxes. Miller and his disciples computed them from the 
initiation of Daniel's 70 weeks, B.C. 457. Of these Sir Isaac Newton 
came nearest to the truth concerning the commencing era ; but like 
all the rest, was prevented from arriving at a correct solution, owing 
to the spuriousness of the number 2,300. Before my suspicions were 
aroused as to its genuineness, though always an opponent of Millerism, 
I accepted their commencement of the period. But, from what is 
before the reader, it is evident to me that the acceptance of 2,400 
as the true reading is indispensable to e\'en a probable solution of 
the difficulty. 

5. — The Four Decrees. 

Ezra informs us in ch. i. that Cyrus, King of Persia, in the first 
of his reign, issued a decree, saying that the Lord God, who had given 
him all the kingdoms of the earth, had charged him to build for Him 
a house at Jerusalem ; and that in obedience to this he invited all 
Jews so disposed to go up to that city, and to begin the work. This 
proclamation was made 70 years after Nebuchadnezzar saw the Image 
in the second year of his reign (Dan. ii.). He saw that image 
demolished by the anti typical C3^rQS in the latter days. These 70 
years of Jeremiah, styled *' the land enjoying its sabbaths to fulfil 
threescore and ten years," ended with the third year of Cyrus, or the 
first of his sole reign, B.C. 540. So that the end of these sabbatic 
years was the beginning of the 2,400 of treading-down. 

Eighteen years after another decree was issued by Darius the 
Persian in the second year of his reign, enforcing the decree of Cyrus 
which had been suspended by Cambyses, styled by Ezra, Artaxerxes. 
This was b.c. 522. Haggai and Zechariah the projDhets, greatly 



34 OHEONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

encouraged the building of the temple under this decree : so that the 
work was finished in the 6th of Darius, B.C. 518. 

Fifty-three years after the decree of Darius, another was issued 
in the 7th of Artaxerxes Longimanus, king of Persia, B.C. 469. This 
was for the appointment of "magistrates and judges to judge all 
the people beyond the river, all such as knew the laws of God " (Ezra 
vii. 7-25, 26). 

Thirteen years after this Artaxerxes made a second decree in the 
month Nisan of the 20th year of his reign, B.C. 456. It was issued to 
Nehemiah while Jerusalem was " lying waste, without a wall, or 
gates ; and therefore a reproach for its enemies." The hroad wall 
was in ruins with breaches in all its length (Neh. ii. 13, 17 : iii. 8 : 
iv. 7). This unfortified state of the city caused few people to dwell 
there, and prevented many houses from being erected : " The city," 
says Nehemiah, " was large and great (or broad in space) : but the 
people were few therein, and the houses not builded " (ch. vii. 4). 
This condition of the Holy City caused him great grief. " When I 
heard it," says he, "I sat down and wept, and mourned, and prayed 
before the God of heaven " (ch. i. 4). Being cupbearer to the king, 
on presenting him with wine, his sadness was observed, and the reason 
demanded. Having explained the cause, Artaxerxes commissioned 
him to go to Jerusalem, and cause the people to return and build it ; 
that so Jerusalem might return, the broad wall be builded, and the 
breaches closed. 

This second decree of Artaxerxes is " the commandment " referred 
to in Dan. ix. 25, from the going forth of which the Seventy Weeks 
were to be computed. Beginning in the month Nisan of the 20th of 
Artaxerxes, and extending " to the cutting off of Messiah the Prince," 
this latter event, the Crucifixion, must necessarily be 490 years from the 
issuance of the decree ; so that, if none of the dates of our Eighth 
Period were extant a suspension bridge would still span the interval ; 
and reveal to us that the world would be 490 years older at the Cruci- 
fixion, than in the 20th of the king. It is more satisfactory, however, 
to be able to fill in the interval with authentic dates, whose sum total 
is exactly Seventy Weeks of Years. And this I have been enabled to 
do, as the reader will perceive. 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTORES. 



35 



EIGHTH PERIOD. 

FROM THE BEGINNma OF DANIEL'S SEVENTY WEEKS 
TO THE CRUCIFIXION OF MESSIAH. 



EMBRACES 

Names and Events. 



490 



YEARS 

Years. 



References. 



3633 


The beginning of Daniel's Seventy Weeks in the 
20th of Artaxerxes 






456 


3662 


Rest of the reign of Artaxerxes from his second 










decree 


29 


Rollin ... 


427 




Xerxes 11., and after hun Sogdianus ... 8 months 








3681 


Darius Nothus 


19 


... 


408 


3724 


Artaxerxes ]VInemon 


43 


„ 


365 


3747 


Artaxerxes Ochus 


23 


... 


342 


3749 


Arses 


2 


„ 


340 


3755 


Darius Codomannus, the last king of the Silver 










Dynasty of Nebuchadnezzar's Image 


6 


„ 


334 


3762 


AtBXANDBK of MacedoH, the notable horn of the 
Goat, and first of the Brazen Dynasty of the 










same Image, dies at Babylon after Darius 


7 


1 Mace. i. 7 


327 


3774 


To the Era of the Seleucida?, termed " The Era 










OF THE Greeks" 


12 


„ i. 10 


315 


3805 


Seleucus Nicator reigns from this Era 


31 




284 


3824 


Antiochus Soter 


19 


... 


) 


265 


3839 


Antiochus Theos 


15 




... 


250 


3859 


Seleuchus Callinicus 


20 






230 


3862 


Seleucus Cer anus 


3 




, 


227 


3898 


Antiochus " the Great " 


36 




, 


191 


3910 


Seleucus Philopator 


12 




, 


179 


3919 


Antiochus Epiphanes ; in the 9th year of his reign, 
Judas Maccabeus is appointed by Matthias to 
the government of Judea, now in full insurrec- 
tion against the Greeks. The Era of the 










Asmoneans begins 


9 


1 Mace. ii. 66, 70 


170 


3922 


Antiochus dies a most miserable death three years 
after Judas Maccabeus is appointed Chief of 
the Insurrection, in the 149th of " tiie Kingdom 










of the Greeks" 


3 


vi. 16 


167 


3924 


Antiochus Eupator 


2 


vi. 17: vii. 1-4 . 


165 


3936 


Demetrius Soter 

Judas slain in this reign; the Roman Senate 
forms a league with the Jews ; Ezekiel's 430 
years of retribution end, B.C. 161, eight years 
before Demetrius Soter 's death. Israel " holpen 
with alittlehelp" 


12 


x. 50, 57 

„ viii.l ; Dan.>i. 34. 


153 


3941 


Alexander Bala ... 


5 




148 


3959 


Demetrius Nicator 


18 




130 


3963 


Alex. Zebina, Cleopatra, and Seleucus V. ... 


4 




126 


3990 


Antiochus Grypus 


27 




99 


3994 


Seleucus ... 


4 




95 


4018 


Antiochus Eusebes 


24 




71 


4022 


Antiochus Asiaticus, the last King of the Nortli- 
Horn Dynasty of the Goat, in the 4th of Aristo- 










bulus II., King of Judea, dethi'oned by Pompey 


4 




67 


4024 


Aristobulus II., having reigned six years, dies two 










years after 


2 




65 


4048 


Hyrcanus II., King of Judea, reigns 


24 




41 


4050 


Antigonus 


2 




39 


4089 


Herod the Idumsean 

Jesus of Nazareth asking questions of the 


39 




00 

A.]). 




doctors, aged 12 




Luke ii. 42 


12 


4116 


The SEVEN WEEKS AND THREESCORE AND TWO 










WEEKS of Daniel end 


27 


Dan. ix. 25. 






" The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Chiist " 










at John's baptism, which commenced the last 










week of the 70 




Mark i. 1. 




4120 


In " the Half of the Week " — khatzi hasshalivua — 
Jesus manifested to Israel by immersion in 










Jordan, being about 30 years of age 


4 


Lukeiii. 23 


30 


4123 


In the Second Half of the Week " He does cures 
to-day and to-morrow, and the third He is 
perfected," having been " cut off " pre- 










viously by crucifixion 


3 


„ xiii. 32; Dan.ix.26 


33 




Seventy Weeks of Years are equal to 


490 









36 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



The Decree of Phocas. 

The authorities for the statement, that Phocas confirmed the 
sapremacy of the Roman See, and thereby constituted the Bishop of 
Rome the Spiritual Chief of All Churches, are Paul the Deacon; and 
ANA.STASIUS in his Ecclesiastical History of the a.d. 606. The latter 
observes : " This (Boniface III.) obtained from Phocas the Prince, that 
the Apostolical See of the Blessed Apostle Peter should be Head of All 
Churches ; because the Constantinopolitan church had written that she 
is the first of all the churches." 

Gordon and Baronius date Phocas' decree a.d. 606 ; Muratori, 
A.D. 607. In 608, he gave the Pantheon to the Pope ; a temple 
originally dedicated to Cybele and all the gods. The Pope rededicated it 
to the Virgin and all the Martyrs— the gods and goddesses of the 
Catholic superstition. 



DANIEUS SEVENTIETH WEEK. 

FROM THE BEGINNING OF JOHN THE IMMERSER'S MIS- 
SION TO ''THE CUTTING OFF OF MESSIAH THE PRINCE." 

EMBRACES 7 YEARS. 

A.M. Names and Events. Years. References. A.D. 



3633 


The Seventy Weeks, or 490 years, begin in the 
20th Artaxerxes 








4116 


Sixty-nine of the Seventy, or 483 years end 
John tlie Iimnerser, now 26 years and 6 months okl 
As the Voice crying in the Wilderness, he begins 
to preacli " the Baptism of Repentance for 

Remission of Sins " 

Tliis Seventieth Week, tlie Week of the Confirma- 
tion of the Abralia)))ic Covenant, is divided into 
Two Halves 




Lukei. 36, 56 

Mark i. 4 ; Luke iii. 1-3. 
Dan. ix. 27. 


2b 


4120 


At the end of the first half all the people and 
Jesus l)eing innnersed, John is shut up in 










])rison by Herod 


3i 


Luke iii. 20, 21. 






For 40 days after his immersion, Jesus is tempted. 




„ iv. 2. 






Tlie temptation finished, Jesus begins to preach 










tlie C;osi)el of the Kingdom 




„ iii. 23 


30 


4123 


" He does cures to-day and to-morrow, and the 
third day " - « day for a year, and is then " cut 










oil' " at the end of the second half of the week 


7 




33 



NOTES ON TPIE SEVENTIETH WEEK. 
1.— Improved Translation of the Text. 

The following translation made by me I regard as an improve- 
iijont upon that of the English version. Gabriel said to Daniel in 
the first year of Darius the Mede, B.C. 542, " Seventy sevens have been 
decreed with respect to thy people, and with respect to thy holy city, 



OHRONOIOGY OF THE SORIFfURES. 37 

for finishing the transgression, for perfecting sin-offerings, for covering 
iniquity, for causing to come in a righteousness of hidden periods, for 
sealing the vision and Prophet, and for anointing the Holy of holies. 
25. Know then and be wise. From the going forth of a command- 
ment for causing to return and for building Jerusalem to the 
Anointed Prince there shall he seven sevens and sevens sixty and two : 
she shall return, and the Broad wall and the breach be builded, even 
in the trouble of the times. 

26. And after the sixty and two sevens the Anointed one shall be 
cut off, but there shall he nothing in Him. And the City and the Holy 
Place the people of the Prince coming shall destroy ; and the end 
thereof shall he with a sweeping away, and before the end of the 
war desolations are decreed. 

27. And He shall cause to confirm a covenant for many one 
seven : and half of the seven He shall cause to cease sacrificing and 
offering. And because of an overflowing of abominations there shall 
he a desolating even to destruction ; and that decreed shall be poured 
out upon the desolator." 

2.— Speculations of Cbronologists on the Seventy Weeks. 

Various have been the speculations of " the wise and prudent " 
concerning the beginning and ending of this notable and interesting 
prophecy. Mr. Shimeall tells us, that the Seventy Weeks, which he 
admits are 490 years, began in the 7th of Artaxerxes, B.C. 453, and 
ended 3J years after the crucifixion, Jesus being crucified " in the 
midst of the week." Besides this, he tells us that the decree issued 
to Ezra in the 7th year was for the re-building of the city, street, and 
wall of Jerusalem. This, however, is all mere fiction. The 7th year of 
Artaxerxes was B.C. 469, and not 453, a difference of 16 years ; which 
leaves only 21 years, instead of 33, the age of Jesus when crucified ; 
so that Mr. Shimeall's termination of the 490 years is 12 years before, 
instead of 3 J years after, that event. 

Jesus was not crucified " in the midst of the week." What Gabriel 
said was khatzi hasshahvua, " half of the seven : " khatzi signifies 
"half, part or portion of anything." He divided the last seven into 
halves, and said in " half of the seven He (the Prince) would cause to 
cease sacrificing and offering." But whether the first half or the last 
half, he did not say. He left that to be determined by events. And 
events did determine it most remarkably : for at the full end of the 
last half, even fifty days after it had ended in the Crucifixion, many 
for whom the covenant was confirmed, obeyed the voice of tlie Spirit 
in Peter, in being immersed upon the name of Jesus Christ into 
remission of sins ; and thenceforth were caused by " the word of 
reconciliation " to cease offering bloody sacrifices and meat-offerings 
according to the law. 

Others would have us believe that the Crucifixion occurred at the 
end of 69 weeks, and that the last, or seventieth week, is all yet in 
the future ! Upon this hypothesis, then, Jesus of Nazareth is not the 
Christ, and Christianity is all a fable ! Gabriel declared, that certain 



38 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



six things were to be accomplished within the seventy weeks ; first, 
the finishing the transgression of the law ; second, the perfecting of 
sin-offerings in the Christ ; third, the covering of iniquity with a spotless 
robe ; fourth, the induction of a righteousness that should entitle to 
life in the ages to come ; fifth, the sealing the vision and prophet like 
to Moses ; and sixth, the anointing the Most Holy of the saints with 
spirit and power. These things were all to be done within the 490 
years. It is certain they were none of them fulfilled within 69 weeks, 
or 483 years. If, then, the seventieth week is still future, which is 
the only portion of time allotted to their accomplishment, these six 
important and indispensable items are in the future likewise. And, 
as the apostolic revelation of the mystery, set forth in the word of 
reconciliation they preached, was all based upon the truth of the 
claims of Jesus to the Messiahship, their proclamation is a mere 
cunningly devised fable on the supposition of the last seven years of the 
490 being in the future. But the Ghronikon Hebraikon demonstrates 
the error common to all chronologists who do not terminate the 
Seventy Weeks with the Crucifixion. 

It is entirely incorrect to say that the decree issued to Ezra in the 
7th of Artaxerxes was " for the building of the city, street, and wall 
of Jerusalem." It was for no such purpose ; but for the restoration 
of the civil law. The Seventy Weeks can only be computed rightly 
from the 20th of this reign, when the second decree of Artaxerxes was 
issued to Nehemiah for the execution of what is erroneously assigned 
to Ezra ; and the years elapsing between the 20th year and the Cruci- 
fixion exactly filling up the interval, prove the commandment delivered 
to Nehemiah, B.C. 456, to be the true beginning. 



CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY. 



Events. 



Years. 



B.C. 



0000 

1656 
2033 
2463 

2503 
2533 
2983 
3023 
3067 
3107 
3477 
3497 

3567 

3571 

3601 
3613 
3633 



4123 



The Creation 

The Deluge 

To the Confirmation of the Covenant -with Abraham 

To the beginning of the Hebrew Calendar at the institution of the 

Passover and Exodus 

To the Invasion of Canaan under Joshua 

To the deatli of Joslaua, aged 110 years 

" Judges until Samuel tlie Propliet " 

To the death of Saul and beginning of David's reign over Judah 

To the foundation of the Temple in the 4th of Solomon 

To the apostacy of Judah in the 4th of Rehoboam 

Nebuchadnezzar begins to reign 

From the 4th of Kehoboam to the Destruction of the Temple in the 

19th of Nebuchadnezzar 
To the 2nd of Darius the Persian when the building of the Temple is 

resumed 
The Temple finished in the 6th of Darius, 70 years from 23rd 

Nebuchadnezzar 

Darius reigns after the Temple is finished 

Xerxes, the 4th, after Cyrus, reigns 

Artaxerxes Longimanus reigns 20 years, and issues his 'decree which 

begins the 70 weeks of Daniel 

'90 BiHTH OF Jesus Chuisx 

To the " cutting off of Messiah the Prince " by crucifixion, aged 33 years 

Whole number of years from the Creation to the Crucifixion 



1656 


1656 


377^ 




I 


807 


430^ 




40 


40 


30) 
450 i 


480 


40) 
44 i 


84 


40 1 




390 J 


430 




70 




4 




30 > 


136 


12 




2o' 




490 


490 


4123 


4123 



2433 
2056 

1626 
1586 
1556 
1106 
1066 
1022 
982 
612 

592 

522 

518 
488 
476 

456 

A.D. 

33 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



39 



NINTH PERIOD. 

FROM THE CRUCIFIXION TO THE END OF THE EVENING- 
MORNING PERIOD OF 2,400 YEARS. 

EMBRACES 1,827 YEARS. 

A.M. Events. Years. A.D. 



4123 



4187 
4402 



4413 
4414 
4426 
4620 



4620 



The "cutting off of Messiah the Prince" by crucifixion inflicted by the Little 
Horn of the Goat, in which lie was "given for a covenant of tlie people" 
(Isa. xlii. 6 : xlix. 8) ; and believers were " caused to cease sacrificing and 
offering" 

The forty years ensuing are styled in Scripture, iracaQ rag flfxepag, 'eu)Q 
rng OVX'reXeiag rov anovog .' (M the days until the end of the ceon 
(Matt, xxviii. 20) ; very incorrectly rendered in the English version, "Alwaj^, 
even unto the end of the world." These years are " the last days " of 
Heb. i. 2, James v. 3, and 2 Tim. iii. 1, and " the end of the world " of 
Heb. ix. 26 and 1 Cor. x. 11. The iSon, of which these years were the 
last days, was the Mosaic Course constituted by the law, which had 
" waxed old and was ready to vanish away " (Heb. viii. 13). Tliese last days 
of the Mosaic Mon or ypovoi aiOJVtOi (Tit. i. 2) are familiarly styled 
the Apostolic Age : the events of which, worthy of being remembered, 
are recorded in all the New Testament, except the Apocalypse 

" The Daily taken away and the place of his sanctuary cast do^n," by " an 
army being given against the Dally because of transgression." The people 
of Messiah the Prince, styled in Matt. xxii. 7, " the King's armies," sent 
forth to destroy the city and sanctuary. These annies were " the host 
given to the little Horn of the Goat," or " king of fierce countenance," by 
which " he cast down to the ground the ti-uth," in its Mosaic representation 
(Dan. viii. 11, 12, 23 : ix. 26). Referring to this destruction of Jerusalem and 
the Temple by the Roman Little Horn, Jesus said, " Of that day and hour 
knoweth no man— no, not the angels who are in heaven, neither the Son, but 
the Father" (Mark xiii. 32). Forty years afterwards, however, history 
recorded the event as having transpired 

* * * " The Vulgar, or Christian ^ra, symbolized by A.D., was not fully settled 
till the year 527, when Dionysius Exiguus, a Romish abbot, fixed it to the 
4713th year of the Julian period, which was /our years too late. It is, how- 
ever, now so generally received that this gross error in calculation is but 
seldom regarded." According to this, four years should be added to all the 
dates of the Vulgar ^ra for the true A.D. denomination. 

The Apocalypse communicated to the apostle John while an exile in Patmos, 
about 

The " One Body," apocalyptically symbolized by a woman, pregnant during a 
" set time " of 280 years from Pentecost, A.D. 33. During this symbolical 
gestation she advances into the period of the sixth seal, when she is 
delivered of the Man Child of Sin, who is caught up by the power of the 
sword to the throne of Deity, or supreme government of the world. He 
founds the despotism styled " Church and State," which thenceforth rules all 
the nations of Daniel's Fourth Beast with a rod of iron (Apoc. xii. 5) 

" Silence in the (Catholic) heaven about half-an-hour " begins 

The Constantinlan or Laodicean Pentecost, styled the Council of Nice 

The silence in the heaven ends at the death of Constantine 

The Daily having been abolished when the place of its sanctuary was destroyed 
A.D. 70, the time is now arrived after an interval of 460 years, " to set up 
an abomination making desolate the Holy Land : which is to continue 1,290 
years ; or, " to the outpouring of that determined upon the Desolator " 
(Dan. xii. 11 : ix. 27). In the Justinian epoch, Noushirvan invades the land 
of Israel. Antioch is taken, and its inhabitants translated to the banks of 
the Tigris. The wars were long and desolating, and continued through the 
reigns of Justinian, Justin, and Tiberius. Syria was reduced, and the 
Pei-sian standards advanced to the shores of the Mediterranean 

Beginning also of the 1,335 years, which extend to "the time of the dead," when 
Daniel and John " arise to their inheritance " (Dan. xii. 12, 13) 

After a gestation of 280 years from the Council of Nice, A.D. 325, the " Great 
Harlot " gives birth to " the god of the earth," who, in the Phocan 
epoch, is fully " revealed " in Rome (Dan. xi. 36-39) 



215 
11 

1 
12 



194 



573 



70 



313 

324 
325 
337 



531 
531 



40 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCRIPTUEES. 



A.M. 



Events. 



Years. A.l), 



4721 
5021 
5151 

5542 
5661 

5774 
5879 

5911 

5950 



Beginning of the "time, times, and dividing of time," when the saints were 
imperially "given into the hand" ot the Episcopal Mouth of the Little 
Horn by the Civil Power (Dan. vii. 25). These " times " are identical with 
the 42 months of Apoc. xi. 2 : xiii. 5, in the Pliocan epoch 

Beginning of the " time, times, and a half " sworn to bj^ the "Man clothed in 
linen " (Dan. xii. 7) ; and by the Raiubowed Angel also swearing that the 
" time shall be no longer " (Apoc. x. 6), whicli personages are identical 

Beginning of the first period of "five months " Saracenic tormentation of the 
imsealed (Apoc. ix. 4-6) 

Ending of the second period of " five months " signalized by the fall of the 
Caliphs 

Beginning of "the hour and day and month and year," or 391 years and 30 days, 
appropriated to the subversion of the Greek Catholic Imperial Third of the 
Roman Orb (Apoc. ix. 15) 

End of the 391 years and 30 days, signalized by the capture of Constantinople 
by the Turks 

The St. Bartholomew Massacre, which signalizes the finishing of the testifying 
of the witnesses before the Serpent and the God of the earth, at the end of 
"a time, times, and half-a-ttme," or 1,260 years (Apoc. xi. 3 : xii. 6, 14, 17; 
and the malting war upon them by the Beast 

The witnesses conqviered by the Beast and " killed " (Dan. vii. 21 ; Apoc. xi. 7 : 
xiii. 7 

The witnesses remain unburied corpses in the Breadth of the Great City " three 
days and a half," lunar time; at the end of which political life enters into 
them, and they ascend to power, 1,260 years from the Justinian epoch 

End of the 1,290 years desolating abomination, signalized by the beginning of 
the outpouring of " that determined upon the Desolator " of the Holy 
Land, in the Greek Revolution 

End of the Evening -Morning period, 2,400 years from " the third year of 
Cyrus " ; notably signalized by the immediately succeeding hexennial 
epoch of the American-Civil, the Franco-Mexican, the Russo-Polish, and 
the Austro-Prussian Danish wars ; with pestilence, financial perplexity, 
and the ominous Roman Question 

Whole number of years from the crucifixion to the end of the 2,400 



573 



26 
300 


682 
982 


130 


1062 


391 


1453 


119 


1572 


113 


1685 


105 


1789 


32 


1821 



1860 



HEBREW CHRONOLOGICAL PERIODS 

OF THE 

GREAT MEDIATORIAL MILLENNARY WEEK OF SEVEN 
THOUSAND YEARS. 

Order. Periods. Duration. References. 



1 


The Antediluvian ending in the 600th year of Noah 


1656 


Gen. vii. 6. 




2 


The Postdiluvian Patriarchal ending with the Exodus 


807 






3 


Beginning of the Mosaic ^on, styled by Paul ol chronoi 




Exod. xii. 2 : xiii. 4 ; 






aionoi, to the Time of the Judges 


70 


Tit. i 


2. 


4 


Time of the Judges " until Samuel the Prophet " 


450 


Acts xiii. 20. 




5 


From Samuel to the Foundation of the Temple in the 










4thof Solomon 


84 


1 Kin. vi. 1. 




6 


The Temple Ei-a till the Destruction thereof in the 19th 










Nebuchadnezzar 


430 


2 Kin. XXV. 8. 




7 


From Destruction of the Temple to the begiiming of 










Gabriel's 70 weeks in the 20th Artaxerxes 


136 


Neh. i. 1-3 ; if. 1. 




8 


From the Beginning of the 70 weeks to the Crucifixion ... 


490 


Dan. ix. 26. 




9 


From the end of the 70 weeks at "the cutting-otf of 
Messiah the Prince," to the end of the Evening- 
Morning Period of 2,400, in a.d. 1860-1 


1827 






10 


From the End of the 2,400 to the End of the "Little 
Season," including it and Micah's premillennial 40 










years, and the Thousand Years' Reign 


1050 


Apoc. XX. 3, 7 ; 

Mic. vii. 15. 






Whole number of years from the Creation to the Cessation 










of every curse 


7000 


Apoc. xxii. 3. 





APPENDIX. 



Chronikon Hehraikon, to the best of our belief, remains the best and 
most scriptural Chronology extant. Yet in some details more light is 
to be desired, and the author's conclusions cannot be accepted in 
their entirety. While sympathising entirely with the desire for 
unquestionable accuracy and final and conclusive demonstration, 
it cannot be conceded that the qualifications of " about or nearly " 
are entirely eliminated from this chronology. Neither does the 
apostle Paul speak thus absolutely in the celebrated j)assage in 
Acts xiii., for he says "about the space of four hundred and fifty 
years," God gave Israel Judges until Samuel the prophet. Nor is 
the phrase "until 'Samuel the prophet" susceptible of so rigid a 
construction as this chronology lays down, for Samuel was a judge 
as well as a prophet, as he himself emphasises. These remarks are 
made in no hypercritical spirit, but only for the sake of truth, 
which, it is believed, may still harmonise all the intricacies of this 
most difficult subject. 

A few notes are therefore added, and the fijial solution of 
the problems involved, if ever they be finally solved this side the 
Kingdom of God, is left over. 

First, then, with regard to the celebrated difficulty — the 480 
years of 1 Kings vi. 1 ; it is to be remarked that the Septuagint 
has *' 440 years," showing that there was a difficulty over the 
matter between two and three hundred years before Christ. It is 
evident that from the Exodus to Solomon's accession is a span of 
600 years (Josephus makes it 592 years — Ant. viii. 3, § 1), but the 
final adjustment of the component spans that make up this period 
does not yet appear. 

On page 18 the definition of the " fourth period," to be strictly 
faithful to the inspired word, needs revision. It should not say : — 
" embraces 450 years," but " embraces about 450 years." The appear- 
ance of absolute accuracy is misleading, for the apostle does not so 
speak. Neither does he accurately define a point of time in the 



42 APPENDIX. 

phrase " until Samuel tlie prophet ; " nor does there seeia to be any 
good reason why the greater part of Samuel's life should he excluded 
from the time of the judges. The facts are these. Samuel was 
a judge. "Samuel judged Israel in Mizpeh " (1 Sam. vii. 6). 
Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went 
from year to 3^ear in circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Miz2)eh, 
and judged Israel in all those places. And his return was to llamah, 
for there was his house; and there he judged Israel; and there he 
built an altar unto the Lord " (1 Sam. vii. 15-17). When " old 
and grey-headed " (1 Sam. xii. 2), after the anointing of Saul, lie 
rallied the people to the memory of God's deliverance by the judges, 
including himself among them : " The Lord sent Jerrubaal and 
Bedan (Abdon) and Jephthah and Samuel, and delivered you out of 
the hand of your enemies " (v. 11). 

The true explanation of Paul's remark in Acts xiii. 21 seems to 
be that towards the end of Samuel's career God gave them Saul, 
and that Samuel and Saul's joint administration endared " by the 
space of forty years " — another " round number," like the four 
hundred and lifty. Josephus says tliat Saul reigned 20 years 
— 18 years contemporary with Samuel, and two years after his 
death (Ant. vi. 13, § 5, and 14, § 9). Also that Samuel "governed 
and presided over the people alone, after the death of Eli the 
High Priest, 12 j^ears (ibid). This makes 32 years from the death 
of Eli to the death of Saul (Ant. vi. 1). Whiston's Josephus, by 
interpolating in brackets [" and twenty "] in Ant. vi. 14, 0, to 
make Saul's reign up to 40 years, to square with the popular 
misunderstanding of Acts xiii. 21, at once upsets the Bible history 
and Josephus' paraphrase thereof. 

It is quite evident, as Dr. Thomas argues, that a reign of 40 years 
is impossible for Saul ; but, on the other hand, to assign to him a reign 
of less than seven would seem to be an error in tlie other direction- 
It may be remarked here that in the difficult passage : 1 Sam. xiii. 1, 
the R.V. points in the margin to a certain rescension of the 
Septuagint which reads : " Saul was thirty years old when he 
began to reign." He reigned two years and committed a trespass 
which caused him tlie loss of the kingdom. But he afterwards 
reigned long enough to subdue all his enemies round about- 
" Saul took the kingdom over Israel, and fought against all 
his enemies on every side, against Moab, and against the children 
of Ammon, and against Edom, and against the Kings of Zobali, 
and against the Philistines, and whithersoever lie turned himself 
he vexed them. And he gatliered an host and smote the 



APPENDIX. 43 

Amalekites, and delivered Israel out of the liands of tliem that 
spoiled them " (1 Sara. xiv. 47). A period of less than five 
years would seem to be inadequate for all this. Further, 
Ishbosheth, Saul's son, was 40 years old at Saul's death (2 Sam. 
ii. 10); and Jonathan's little son was live years old at the 
same time (2 Sam. iv. 4), which better accords with the longer 
reign of Saul. Josephus is manifestly somewhere near the truth, 
even if he be not actually correct. 

What, then, of the captivity of the Ark, and its long sojourn 
at Kirjath Jearim, which Dr. Thomas makes such a strong jjoint ? 
The answer is, that it is nowhere said in the Scriptures that 
the "20 years" of its abode at Kirjath Jearim measures the 
interval between its return from the land of the Philistines and 
the eighth year of t]ie reign of David (Chron. Heb., p. 20 ; 
1 Sam. vii. 2 ; 2 Sam. v. yi.). The inference that it does so 
is very natural, but is mistaken all the same. If David had 
been born " seventeen years before the Ark's capture " (Chron. 
Heb., tab. p. 21), then he must have been 37 years old at tlie 
end of these 20 years, and still older when he slew GoHath, 
and a man advanced in years when he began to rfdgn ; all 
of which is, of course, quite out of harmony witli the 
scripture, which depicts liim as a stripling in his encounter 
with the giant, and as 30 years old when he began to reign 
(2 Sam. V. 4). The termination of the 20 years of 1 Sam. 
vii. 2 is the solemn repentance of Israel and their return to 
Yahweli, when they "put away Baalim and Ashtaroth and 
served Yahweli only " ; and He accepted Samuel's offering and 
miraculously subdued the Philistines, so that " they came no 
more into the coast of Israel " ; but " the hand of tlie Lord 
was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel." The 20 
years are, in fact, the measure of the period of servitude that 
followed the judgship of Eli in retribution for the iniquity of 
his house. Proliably more than 40 years inter vc^iied between 
the death of Eli and the capture of the Ark by the l^hilistines, 
and its removal to the city of David from Kirjath Jearim, 
in the eighth year of David's reign. 

The date of Daniel's deportation to Babylon cannot be " the 
eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign" (tab. "Sixth Period") for 
he prophesied before the King in Babylon "in the second year" 
of his reign (Dan. ii. 1), after " three years " preparatory training 
(Dan. i. 5). The explanation of this added apparent discrepancy 
is to be found in tlie fact that Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judea 



44 APPENDIX. 

and took captives from Jerusalem before he actually ascended 
tlie throne. 

The foregoing modifications do not affect the main question, 
but only the correct relative placing of various periods. The 
dates of the Christian Era are likewise unaffected by the obscu- 
rities in certain Old Testament periods. The fall of the Temporal 
Power is a great landmark that cannot be mistaken. Expected 
by Dr. Thomas in 1865, it became a fully accomplished fact in 
1870. Thirty years and more have now elapsed, and the Rise 
of the Jew is the Sign of the Times that most signally marks 
the end of that interval after the fall of the Pope. We are in 
the last days of " the sixth vial," when the Power that at 
present desolates the Lord's land is being enfeebled to the last 
degree, prior to its removal to make way for *' the Kings of tl:e 
East." At such a crisis the Lord himself has by a striking 
parenthesis (Rev. xvi. 15) declared that he will come upon the 
world as a thief. " Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth 
his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame." 

Publisher. 



H 152 82 



9* * • • « 
*^» -iC^ «i* • &^^^-« ^ "^ -'^ 






'o/ 



^•/ x'^^\^' "o^-^^-/ \/W^\/ 




-;^ ' • „o - .0 '*:rv - . ., - 

C> Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 

*0, Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 

*r ^^ c, *^ Treatment Date: August 2005 

' ^^< PreservationTechnologies 

* A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

V 111 Thomson Park Drive 

A . o «» o Cranberry Township, PA 16066 

r7?4177q.?iiV 


























• •»* 



^.* . '2.^ 










* ^ .ii^a,^ ^* \9* ..-.. ^"^ "' ,\* ... % ••"••• ^0' 




^ 





MAY 82 



N. MANCHESTER, 
^^ INDIANA 46962 





7?;??^. 



